A Manhattan federal judge dismissed the trademark lawsuit by NYU Langone against Northwell Health Friday, which had alleged the New Hyde Park-based healthcare provider had copied its shade of purple in advertisements.
While dismissed, the judge’s ruling allows for Langone to amend its claims to try again.
“We are pleased the court recognized that NYU Langone may have an actionable claim against Northwell’s imitation of NYU Langone’s distinctive advertising and look forward to providing the court with greater detail,” Langone spokesman Steve Ritea said in an email reported by Newsday.
The Manhattan-based hospital filed a lawsuit against Northwell Health in June accusing them of imitating Langone’s color scheme and using a similar shade of purple in their advertising and buildings. Langone said this was to capitalize on its “substantial investment in its brand.”
Northwell, which has 16 of its 21 hospitals on Long Island, is the state’s largest healthcare provider with over 85,000 employees.
The lawsuit alleged that Northwell copied Langone’s advertising and marketing campaigns, color schemes, fonts, headline styles and visual identity.
“Northwell’s conduct is not only unfair, but by hitching its brand to NYU Langone, Northwell has created a likelihood of confusion as to the affiliation, connection, or association of Northwell with NYU Langone to the detriment and harm of NYU Langone,” the lawsuit said.
Presiding Judge Valerie Capron ruled that the claim of copyright infringement was too broad, according to Newsday.
“Even among ads that are predominantly purple, the shade of purple varies; some have all-cap white writing; some have all-white sentence case writing; and some have a mix of white and other color writing,” Caproni wrote in her decision. “The court cannot ascertain specific fonts, colors, or headline styles from NYU Langone’s description of its trade dress.”
Caproni also denied Langone’s complaint that Northwell Health had committed false advertising in claiming to be the best hospital in Manhattan and “NYC’s only hospital in the Nation’s Top 50,” based on Healthgrades’ ranking.
Langone said this was an untrue claim as it was ranked No. 1 in New York State and the New York City Metro area by U.S. News & World Report.
Caproni called these claims “non-actionable puffery” and said that they are protected under federal law.
Northwell filed a motion to dismiss the suit in August, which Caproni said she expected Langone to respond to by being more specific in its infringement claim. She said this did not occur.
“While we are pleased by these rulings, we are disappointed in NYU Langone’s continuing waste of resources and funds and diverting the attention of the communities we both serve with such baseless allegations,” Northwell’s marketing head Ramon Soto said in an email reported by Newsday.
