Boxy Girl sues toy importer for stealing name, identity

Original title：FRESNO ENTREPRENEUR FILES TRADEMARK CLAIM AGAINST HONG KONG TOYMAKER

What brings a Fresno-based home goods manufacturer and a Hong-Kong based toy company together? A federal trademark lawsuit.

Hannah Serimian, owner of Boxy Girl, filed a lawsuit on the grounds of “trademark infringement, unfair competition and counterfeiting” against Jay at Play International and its corporate officers, according to a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Florida.

Jay at Play does business in Boca Raton, Florida, though it is a Hong Kong corporation. Its parent corporation, Jay Franco & Sons, is headquartered in New York City.

Serimian alleges that Jay at Play’s Boxy Girls line of dolls violates the trademark Serimian first filed for her company in 2011. In 2015, the Boxy Girl line of makeup boxes became available. Three years after that, the Boxy Girl line of toy dolls came out, according to the release. Since that time, the Boxy Girls toy website populates higher than Serimian’s company on internet searches and on social media. The similarities between the names Boxy Girl and Boxy Girls, and Serimian’s other line Boxy Baby and Jay at Play’s Boxy Babies, blur the lines between the two brands, the lawsuit complaint states.

Serimian alleges that after she made multiple unanswered requests to stop marketing under the Boxy Girls name, the company introduced a doll named Hannah.

The lawsuit seeks money equaling both all profits made “as a result of [Jay at Play’s] infringing actions,” and damages caused by the claims.

Serimian is being represented by law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, out of Miami, Florida.

“It’s time for big companies with big legal budgets to stop bullying female entrepreneurs,’’ Serimian said. “We aren’t going to let Jay at Play rob of us our intellectual property, our years of hard work and our stellar brand reputation.’’

Emails requesting comment from Jay at Play were not immediately returned.