Williams & Connolly Goes to Work for "Cake Boss"

We’ve never seen the show “Cake Boss” on TLC, but it’s apparently quite the hit with viewers interested in how baker Buddy Valastro (pictured right) makes ultra-complicated (and tasty!) cakes under intense time pressure. It’s so popular, in fact, that a small Texas software company behind a program for “bakers and cake hobbyists” called “Cake Boss” claims it has been flooded with e-mails since the TV show became a hit. That company, Masters Software, filed suit against Discovery Communications (the company behind TLC), accusing Discovery of infringing on Masters’ trademark of the phrase “Cake Boss” and some accompanying graphic design.

A federal district judge granted Masters a preliminary injunction in July over the objections of Discovery and its counsel at Arent Fox and the Sherman Law Firm in Seattle. So Discovery did what big companies do: they brought in additional high-powered lawyers (Williams & Connolly) and appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit challenging the preliminary injunction. The Discovery team filed its appeals brief late Monday, according to court records.