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Law360 (August 21, 2020, 5:52 PM EDT) -- The governing body behind Arizona State University has sued Facebook and an Instagram account that it claims illegally used the school's trademarks to try to throw a party during the COVID-19 pandemic and claim the virus is a "hoax."
The Arizona Board of Regents, on behalf of ASU, filed a complaint in federal court on Thursday against the unknown entity behind the "asu_covid.parties" Instagram account and against Facebook, which is Instagram's owner.
The board said that the point of the suit is to bring an end to the asu_covid.parties account, which the board said is wrongfully using ASU's trademarks and school colors.
"This unauthorized use of ASU's trademarks and trade dress not only harms ASU, but if not enjoined is also likely to endanger the health of the university community," the complaint read. "There is already evidence of at least one instance of actual confusion regarding ASU's affiliation with this Instagram account, with an alumnus threatening to cut off all support for ASU because of the apparent misperception that this account and its messaging comes from or has been sanctioned by ASU."
The board also said that even though it told Instagram about the alleged trademark infringement when it filed a report with the company, Facebook is still allowing the Instagram account at issue to use the platform.
The board said that the people behind the account at issue "may be located in Russia," and have been trying to make the COVID-19 pandemic even worse in the state.
The lawsuit said that in July, whoever is behind the "asu_covid.parties" account created the account and posted a message partly saying that social distancing should end and that "IT IS TIME TO PARTY!" The board said that "the username and account profile misleadingly suggest that this account is associated with ASU, even though it is not."
The account said that it would throw a "Hoax-19" party, and also told people that they shouldn't wear masks, the complaint alleged.
"We simply cannot and will not allow the institution and its trademarks to be used for the manipulative and inappropriate purposes of those who cowardly hide behind social media collaborators like Instagram," ASU's President Michael Crow said in a statement.
Representatives for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The Arizona Board of Regents is represented by Glenn S. Bacal and Sean D. Garrison of Bacal & Garrison Law Group.
Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available on Friday.
The case is Arizona Board of Regents v. Doe et al., case number 2:20-cv-01638, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
--Editing by Jack Karp.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
