No answer from defendant prompts barbecue restaurant to seek default judgment

HOUSTON - A motion for default judgment was entered into a barbecue restaurant's trademark infringement lawsuit, recent court papers show. 

Rudy's Texas Bar-B-Q LLC submitted the 11-page motion Nov. 29, just more than two months after it launched a legal complaint against South Texas restaurateur Rudy A. Davila.

The suit against Davila, doing business as Rudy's Bar-B-Q, alleges the defendant wrongfully appropriated the plaintiff’s trade names and marks through his eateries in Sinton and Ingleside.

The plaintiff explains that Davila opened a restaurant and catering business in Sinton called Rudy’s Bar-B-Q in 2001, and recently, another establishment with the same name in Ingleside with “actual notice and knowledge, or had constructive notice, of the existence of Rudy’s and its use and ownership of the Rudy’s Marks and Trade Names, including Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q and Rudy’s Texas Bar-B-Q.”

According to the suit, the respondent committed the acts in question “in a manner that was likely to confuse consumers into believing falsely that (its) businesses are owned and operated by, affiliated with, or sponsored or approved by the plaintiff.”

Customers confused the Sinton and Ingleside restaurants with the plaintiff’s Corpus Christi location, it says.

Meanwhile, the motion claims the respondent did not provide an original answer to the allegations and that the complainant complied with civil procedure rules.

It additionally states Davila defaulted and kept the complainant from conducting formal discovery, insisting the court should award damages up to $420,000.

Rudy's also seeks a permanent injunction.

Case No. 4:12-CV-2747