A decision in favour of State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. was upheld by a federal appeals court, which based its conclusion on the sometimes-nebulous line between trade dress and trademark infringement.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled in State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. v. Jason Hines on Friday that two commercial insurance policies given by State Farm to Fairfield
New Jersey-based Dedicated Business Systems International LLC covered injuries resulting from trade dress but excluded those resulting from trademark infringement.
According to the decision, DBSI had previously been a licenced distributor of Avaya Inc.'s communications technology
which is situated in Durham, North Carolina, and has trademarks registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The approved reseller agreement came to an end in 2013, but according to the judgement, DBSI and Jason Hines, one of its officers, reportedly continued to access Avaya software licence portals