Taft is proud to announce a significant legal victory for its client, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, following the dismissal of counterclaims and third-party claims in an ongoing litigation matter.

In April 2022, Phi Theta Kappa filed a lawsuit against HonorSociety.org (“Honor Society”) and its CEO, Michael Moradian, accusing them of engaging in trademark infringement and false advertising in connection with the name “Honor Society” which Phi Theta Kappa claims is confusing students. During the litigation, Phi Theta Kappa was also forced to file claims of tortious interference against Honor Society and Honor Society Foundation, accusing them of engaging in a smear campaign designed to harm Phi Theta Kappa’s business.

The Court was asked to intervene on several occasions resulting in injunction orders and an order of contempt imposed against Honor Society for misleading Phi Theta Kappa’s members collegiate partners, and others through deceiving public statements posted online. Specifically, the Court found that Michael Moradian, on behalf of Honor Society, distributed a malicious survey to approximately 450,000 recipients, which was intended to harm Phi Theta Kappa. Despite that, Michael Moradian then created approximately 5,000 AI-generated webpages with misleading information about Phi Theta Kappa, its CEO, Dr. Tincher-Ladner, and the litigation in general, all with the intent of harming Phi Theta Kappa and Dr. Tincher-Ladner. This conduct was the subject of the second injunction and the contempt order against Honor Society.

More recently, as a result of untruthful statements under oath and attempts to conceal relevant evidence, the Court dismissed Honor Society’s counterclaims against Phi Theta Kappa. Taft called for the case to be dismissed with prejudice, stating that, “Honor Society [had] been following a mission apart from this case with a single goal in mind: using this lawsuit to destroy Dr. Tincher-Ladner and Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.” The Court agreed, ruling in favor of Phi Theta Kappa, granting the dismissal of Honor Society’s counterclaims and third-party claims, marking a major win in the case.

The Court’s Order, finding that Moradian perjured himself and concealed evidence, states the following:

• PTK “accuse[s] Moradian of contumacious conduct, including perjury and intentional concealment of evidence.”
• “Honor Society and Moradian have steadfastly denied the allegations, maintaining innocence and shifting blame in attempt to justify their actions.”
• ‘This wasn’t a careless slip of the tongue — it was an endorsement of [an] intention to remove Dr. Tincher-Lander from her position. It indicates that Moradian was not truthful. He perjured himself in July 2024 and then again in October 2024.’
• In its defense, Honor Society contends that ‘[r]ead in context and in full, all of the statements PTK identifies as “lies” are instead truthful statements that Mr. Moradian is engaged in litigation, wants to win, but has nothing personal against Dr. Tincher-Ladner.’ . . . It claims that Moradian’s statements are ‘at worst, unwisely-chosen words.’ . . . But there is nothing “unwisely-chosen” about Moradian’s [words]. Certainly, concealing these post-May 2024 communications was a deliberate attempt to hide the truth.
• “The Court has considered a range of sanctions, from additional warnings to fines and attorney’s fees. It concludes that the appropriate sanction for the pattern of misconduct here is the dismissal of Honor Society’s counterclaims and third-party claims with prejudice.

Honor Society has no counterclaims that remain pending against Phi Theta Kappa.

Taft Indianapolis Partner and IP Practice Group Chair Jonathan Polak, Taft Columbus Partner Rachel Smoot, Taft Minneapolis Attorney Hannah Fereshtehkhou, and Taft Indianapolis Attorney Mike Etienne were the team that led the case.

Polak chairs Taft’s Intellectual Property practice and represents many high-profile businesses and individuals in complex intellectual property and commercial litigation cases. Over the course of nearly 25 years practicing law, he has represented clients in disputes involving trademarks, trade dress, copyrights, rights of publicity, trade secrets and patents. Polak also has considerable experience in domain name dispute litigation, and has also successfully represented clients facing software, technology and entertainment law issues. His clients have included major corporations, closely-held companies, independent inventors, and celebrity estates.

Smoot represents clients at all stages of trademark, copyright, commercial and general litigation matters. She also has significant experience in advising clients on legal matters relating to intellectual property enforcement, dispute resolution and infringement issues. Her clients include non-profits, private companies and individuals.

Fereshtehkhou is an associate in Taft’s Intellectual Property group, whose practice involves all facets of IP litigation with a focus on trademark and unfair competition cases. She leverages her strong research and writing skills and her experience working on trademark prosecution and early enforcement matters to bring a well-rounded perspective to her work.

Etienne is a patent litigation attorney, who also handles related trademark and trade secret disputes in federal court. Mike’s litigation practice spans several industries and technology areas including LED luminaires, tank alarms and controls, building controls, fire-resistant glass flooring, cursor modification technology, patient records software applications, contact lens products, and others.