PayCargo Awarded Over $16 Million After Eleventh Circuit Affirms Trial Court Decision in Case Against CargoSprint
Federal court rules PayCargo competitor CargoSprint conducted “willful, pervasive and relentless” infringement and awards more than $16 Million to PayCargo.
Coral Gables, Florida, US, June 12, 2024
Logistics payments and data infrastructure platform PayCargo announced it has conclusively won its trademark infringement and breach of contract lawsuit against CargoSprint and its founder/CEO Joshua Wolf, following an appeal. PayCargo has been awarded and collected a total of $16,395,683.90, inclusive of damages, attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest, and costs.
The judge in the United States District Court of Florida had earlier issued her findings of facts and conclusions of law on September 30, 2022, holding CargoSprint liable for “willful, pervasive, and relentless” infringement of PayCargo’s federal trademarks and breach of contract. On December 15, 2022, the court entered a permanent injunction against CargoSprint, enjoining them from using the PayAirCargo name in commerce, social media, and other contexts. A day later, the court entered final judgment against CargoSprint, awarding PayCargo $15,191,277.50, comprised of $11,591,277.50 in damages, $3,531,630.00 in attorneys’ fees and prejudgment interest, and $68,370.00 in costs. During the trial, the federal district court twice found CargoSprint in contempt of court, once for submitting fabricated financial records to the court.
CargoSprint appealed PayCargo’s victory at trial to the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. In April 2024, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the trial court’s decision. CargoSprint elected not to further appeal the appellate court’s decision, thus definitively concluding the matter in PayCargo’s favor. On May 28, 2024, CargoSprint paid PayCargo $16,395,683.90 in satisfaction of the judgment.
In 2016, PayCargo reached a settlement agreement with Wolf and his company PayAirCargo to cease commercial use of the name and change it to CargoSprint. In 2019, PayCargo filed its federal civil suit because the defendants continued to use the confusingly similar PayAirCargo name. In finding that Wolf and CargoSprint infringed on PayCargo’s trademarks and breached the agreement, the court explained: “Customers and vendors alike expressed confusion over whether the two competitors were a single entity.”
“We’re extremely gratified with the court’s decision,” said Mitchell Baxt, Vice Chairman of PayCargo. “As a company founded on the highest principles of honesty and transparency, we have taken very seriously this case of another business infringing on our trademarks and breaching our agreement. We’ve worked hard to build PayCargo’s reputation as the leader in the industry, so we owed it to our customers, employees, and business partners to defend it vigorously. Furthermore, the integrity of the industry needs to be protected to continuously advance and innovate.”
PayCargo was represented by Peter Prieto, Matthew Weinshall, and Alissa Del Riego of Miami-based Podhurst Orseck, Ann Fort of Atlanta-based Eversheds Sutherland, and Wayne Atkins of Miami-based Xander Law Group.
About PayCargo
PayCargo is the most trusted logistics payment platform for faster release of cargo. With over 130,000 businesses in the PayCargo Network, you can instantly make payments for same-day or overnight release of cargo to major Air, Land, and Ocean carriers such as MSC, Hapag Lloyd, Alliance Ground, Delta Cargo, Ocean Network Express, Lufthansa and Swissport.
For a more secure, efficient way to reduce costs associated with payment processing and to eliminate the traditional resource-intensive system of requesting, printing, mailing, and delivering checks, wire transfers or cash, join other leading freight shipping companies and sign up with PayCargo today.
For more information about PayCargo, visit paycargo.com
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