Paul, Again
Paul Frank Sunich can still use his name after a judge in the U.S. District Court in Orange County declined to issue a restraining order filed by Sunich’s former employer, Paul Frank Industries. The Costa Mesa–based company had secured a temporary restraining order barring Sunich from using the Paul Frank trademark or trade name following Sunich’s recently filed federal and California suits against PFI. The suits call for dissolution of PFI and charge trademark infringement for PFI’s Julius the Monkey character, created by Sunich in 1995. According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney declined to issue the order, saying PFI did not demonstrate that Sunich had used the Paul Frank name to sell products or design services.
