Complaint Review: Mojdeh Nazari - Woodland Hills California

Zosma Ventures, Inc., the parent company of supplement line Formulated Sciences has announced that they have filed suit against Mojdeh Amini-Nazari, Hossein Givi, their company Pars Med Kish, their shipper, American Export Lines, and their manufacturer, Viva Pharmaceuticals. The suit, filed with the Federal Court, Los Angeles district, case number CV12-1404 RSWL (FFMx), has already seen strong action from presiding Judge Ronald Lew. Both a Federal seizure order and
a preliminary injunction have thus far been granted against the defendants. In the suit, Zosma contends that the defendants willfully and knowingly infringed upon Zosmas trademark. Further, Zosma alleges that the defendants manufactured and exported counterfeit goods in such a manner as to circumvent existing U.S. laws.
With assistance from the United States Marshalls office, the seizure order was carried out at five different locations across Southern California. During the raids, documents were uncovered implicating pharmaceutical and dietary supplement giant, Viva Pharmaceuticals- based out of British Columbia with an additional facility in Blaine, Washington. The documents seized leave a paper trail that shows shipment to the United States from Viva Pharmaceuticals, then from Los Angeles
straight to Iran, via shipper American Export Lines. Further, over 1.2 million units of counterfeit products have apparently been sold, causing Zosma estimated damages in the tens of millions of dollars. These documents, discovered the day before the first hearing on the case, were provided to the Federal Court as additional exhibits to Zosmas lengthy complaint. The scope of the operation runs deeper than originally anticipated by Zosma and their counsel, Mark Vega, of Los Angeles based
Libertas Law Group.
From 2003 to 2008, Pars Med Kish was the exclusive distributor of Zosmas popular Formulated Sciences line of products. In 2009, Amini and Givi claimed that demand had decreased, and pending orders were cancelled. In 2010 Zosma was alerted by an agent of the Iranian Ministry of Health that their product was again on the shelves in Iranian pharmacies. After an extensive two year investigation Zosma discovered the extent of Amini and Givis alleged fraudulent activity. According
to documents found during the U.S. Marshall raid, Amini and Givi moved production of the fish oil product to Canadian pharmaceutical manufacturer Viva Pharmaceuticals. Additionally, these documents showed that Amini and Givi represented that they owned the trademark of Formulated Sciences to Viva, and began to order millions of dollars worth of the counterfeit product. According to the USPTO website, Amini and Givi even went so far as to attempt registration of a slightly
altered Formulated Sciences logo (application number 85496890), which was rejected by the United States Office of Patent and Trademarks.
According to the suit, Zosma believes that the defendants have knowingly and willfully infringed upon Zosmas trademark and good name in order to profit on estimated millions of dollars worth of sales of the counterfeit goods. By moving for a preliminary injunction, Zosma has effectively stopped Pars Med, Amini, and Givi along with Viva Pharmaceuticals and American Export Lines- from continuing to ship the supposed counterfeit products. Furthermore, the Judge granted Zosmas
request to freeze the defendants assets and bank accounts. Although Viva and Amini both contend that they have nothing to do with the operation, they are being represented by the same lawyer, Reza Sina of Sina Law Group, based in Los Angeles, California.