‘Master Softee’ Faces Another Contempt Order in NY Summer Ice Cream Wars

August 2, 2014 – A New York federal judge has found Dimitrio Tsirkos, a former Mister Softee franchisee, in contempt for failing to comply with a June order barring him from using decals on his trucks that are “confusingly similar” to Mister Softee’s trademarks and with an earlier contempt order, which had ordered him to turn over profits and provide the license numbers of trucks that were in violation of the injunction.

Mister Softee had asked that Tsirkos be held in criminal contempt, and that the US Marshalls be directed to seize his trucks, but Judge Laura Taylor Swain, of the Southern District, opted for civil contempt.  She also ordered him to file an affidavit by August 12th disclosing all retail ice cream sales in the Master Softee trucks and the trucks’ license plate numbers. Failure to file the affidavit, the Judge ruled, would lead to Tsirkos’ arrest.

Mister Softee launched its lawsuit against Tsirkos on March 20, claiming that he had violated contractual language barring him from competing with the company after his franchise agreement was terminated and that he was committing blatant trademark infringement with his trucks, which feature a similing sugar-cone figure with a blue jacket, similar to the Mister Softee logo.

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