Two days before Thanksgiving, a smoked turkey vendor filed a copyright suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Tyler against a competitor. Greenberg Smoked Turkeys Inc. v. Goode-Cook Inc. was filed Nov. 23. In the complaint, Tyler-based Greenberg alleges that Houston-based Goode-Cook has published and continues to publish instructions on its website for how consumers should handle and prepare smoked turkeys after purchasing them. Those instructions, the complaint alleges, are similar to those Greenberg authored, posts on its website and sends out with each turkey it sells to consumers. The instructions contain “copyrightable subject matter,” Greenberg states in the complaint. By posting such similar instructions on the Internet, Greenberg alleges, Goode-Cook is violating Greenberg’s copyrights. Represented by Jon Rowan, an associate with Tyler’s Potter Minton, Greenberg seeks an injunction barring Goode and its employees from continuing to violate Greenberg’s copyrights, payment for all profits Goode has derived by allegedly infringing upon Greenberg’s copyrights, damages and attorneys’ fees. Rowan did not return a call seeking comment. Levi Goode, a vice president at Goode-Cook, did not return two calls seeking comment.
-- Miriam Rozen
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