What is the significance of the 'Dismissal with Prejudice' in the lawsuit involving Clean Your Dirty Face?
Clean_Your_Dirty_Face Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
Make-Up Designory v. Shama Patel, MUD Franchising, LLC and Anjmanj, Inc. (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Case No. 1:17-cv-02680, filed April 7, 2017). Make-Up Designory (the "Plaintiff"), an educational institution training student in makeup specialties, filed this lawsuit against the us, our Chief Executive Officer, and Anjmanj, Inc. (collectively the "Defendants") to enforce its intellectual property rights in certain trademarks. Specifically, plaintiff alleged that Defendants were copying and infringing aspects of Plaintiff's intellectual property, and, as a result, creating a likelihood of confusion, actual confusion, and deception as to the affiliation, connection, association, origin, sponsorship and approval of Defendant's services. Plaintiff asserted claims for federal trademark infringement, federal unfair competition, state deceptive trade practices, common law trademark infringement, and common law unfair competition. The relief sought included a judgment stating Defendants infringed Plaintiff's trademark, engaged in unfair competition, engaged in deceptive trade practices, an order transferring ownership of the domain name mudfacialbar.com, money damages, and attorney fees. On May 30, 2017, Defendants filed their answer to the complaint and affirmative defenses claiming failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted; that the claims were based on the doctrines of mootness, estoppel and laches; and that the claims were barred by Plaintiff's failure to mitigate damages. On June 29, 2017, the parties filed a Joint Stipulation of Dismissal with Prejudice and Defendants filed an express abandonment of the "MUD" trademark application on July 5, 2017.
Source: Item 3 — LITIGATION (FDD page 10)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to the 2025 FDD, the lawsuit Make-Up Designory v. Shama Patel, MUD Franchising, LLC and Anjmanj, Inc. was dismissed with prejudice. This lawsuit, filed on April 7, 2017, by Make-Up Designory, involved allegations that Clean Your Dirty Face (then operating as Mud Facial Bar) infringed on their trademarks. The plaintiff claimed trademark infringement, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices, seeking a judgment against Clean Your Dirty Face, transfer of the domain name mudfacialbar.com, monetary damages, and attorney fees. Clean Your Dirty Face denied these claims, asserting defenses such as failure to state a claim, mootness, estoppel, laches, and failure to mitigate damages.
The key detail is that on June 29, 2017, the parties filed a Joint Stipulation of Dismissal with Prejudice. A dismissal with prejudice is a legal term meaning that the case is dismissed permanently and cannot be brought back to court. This signifies a conclusive resolution where the plaintiff, Make-Up Designory, cannot refile the same claims against Clean Your Dirty Face in the future.
For a prospective Clean Your Dirty Face franchisee, this is a positive indicator. It means that the trademark dispute was resolved definitively in 2017. Furthermore, Clean Your Dirty Face expressly abandoned the "MUD" trademark application on July 5, 2017, likely as part of the settlement. This suggests that Clean Your Dirty Face took steps to resolve the matter and protect its brand identity moving forward under the new name. While past litigation is always a factor to consider, the "dismissal with prejudice" provides assurance that this particular legal challenge is closed and should not pose an ongoing risk to franchisees.