Failing to get a trademark infringement suit dismissed on free speech grounds, Houston’s Kwok Daniel and its name partners have settled a suit filed by Texas Children’s Hospital over the use of an altered graphic from the hospital’s website.

As part of the settlement, Kwok Daniel and lawyers Robert Kwok and Thomas Daniel agreed to not use the graphic, which the firm had posted on its website last December but later removed, and to dismiss an interlocutory appeal. The hospital agreed to dismiss all claims against the defendants in the trademark infringement suit it filed in late 2018, according to a dismissal agreement.

Dale Jefferson, a partner at Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom in Houston who represents Kwok Daniel, said other settlement terms are confidential.

Allison Miller, of counsel at Beck Redden in Houston, who represents Kwok and Daniel, could not immediately be reached for comment. Neither could Sean Jordan, a partner at Jackson Walker in Austin, who represents the hospital.

The legal dispute in Texas Children’s Hospital v. Kwok Daniel began last December when the hospital alleged that the defendants used a graphic from TCH’s website, in an altered form, to damage its reputation. The hospital sought a court order to force the firm and the two lawyers to remove the graphic, which the hospital refers to as “the Promise mark,” from the firm website.

The hospital had alleged that the defendants used the altered graphic in a “disparaging and inflammatory article” on the Kwok Daniel website about a client’s lawsuit against the hospital.

In a January motion seeking a temporary injunction, the hospital alleged that the altered graphic, and a revised one that the defendants later posted on the firm’s website, were commercial speech not protected by fair use. But after a judge denied the hospital’s request for an injunction, the Kwok defendants filed an anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss.

In that motion, the defendants sought to quickly dismiss the trademark infringement suit on the ground the hospital’s claims were an attempt to silence free speech. But a judge denied that motion in April, and the defendant firm and lawyers filed an interlocutory appeal.

On Tuesday, the First Texas Court of Appeals in Houston filed a memorandum opinion dismissing the appeal because the Kwok parties notified the court that they and Texas Children’s Hospital have agreed to settle the case.

The Texas Legislature passed a law in 2011, the Texas Citizens Participation Act, that allows judges to quickly dismiss suits that infringe on free-speech rights and forces a plaintiff to pay the defendant’s court costs. Some revisions to the law that were approved this year by the Legislature go into effect on Sept. 1.

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Houston Firm Seeks Quick Dismissal of Hospital’s Trademark Suit