Clementes’ Puerto Rico Trademark Suit Partly Revived for Now

The First Circuit upheld Puerto Rico’s immunity from trademark claims by Roberto Clemente’s heirs, but revived claims against individual officials, sued in that capacity, as they failed to properly argue qualified immunity.

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said in a Friday opinion that a lower court erred when it ruled that Clemente’s three sons didn’t plausibly plead trademark infringement. Puerto Rico earned $15 million in sales of a commemorative license plate that infringed the Clemente sons’ trademark on their dad’s name and image, the sons allege.

Though it revived the case, the opinion by Judge O. ...