What was filed
The complaint is Document 1, filed October 19, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. The case is Sloan Valve Company v. Flex Panther, Bryce White, and Jane Doe, No. 1:26-cv-12834, and it is assigned to Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, with Magistrate Judge Beth W. Jantz designated. It pleads ten claims: a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief; common law unfair competition; trademark infringement under 15 U.S.C. § 1114; unfair competition under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a); dilution under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c); false advertising under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)(1)(B); civil conspiracy; common law trademark infringement; violation of the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, 815 ILCS 510; and piercing the corporate veil. Sloan demands a jury trial. Counsel are Michael L. Sullivan and Jon E. Klinghoffer of Goldberg Kohn Ltd. as local counsel, and Jonathon W. Groza, Kyle D. Stroup, and Antonio F. Dempsey of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz LLP, whose pro hac vice applications the complaint says are forthcoming. The complaint runs 42 pages. Its exhibits, A through E.4, were filed as a single 53-page attachment that is not freely available on the public docket.
The suit names Flex Panther, White, and a single Doe defendant over one Amazon storefront; it is not a Schedule A case. The complaint asks for permanent injunctions but does not ask for a temporary restraining order or an asset freeze. On October 20, 2026, the docket shows summonses issued to Flex Panther and Bryce White, a trademark report mailed to the USPTO, and Lanham Mediation Program materials mailed to Sloan's counsel; it lists no motion for a temporary restraining order.
The parties and the marks
The complaint says Sloan Valve Company is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Franklin Park, Illinois, and that it makes and sells plumbing parts, fixtures, and accessories. It describes Flex Panther as a California corporation, the successor by conversion to Flex Panther LLC, believed to be headquartered in Murrieta, California, that operates a storefront on Amazon. It says Bryce White is an individual who lives in Murrieta, California, and owns and operates the Flex Panther storefront, and it alleges, on information and belief, that White is the owner or managing member of Flex Panther and uses it as his alter ego. Jane Doe is, on information and belief, one or more people or entities assisting in the sales, whose identity the complaint says is unknown.
Sloan asserts six registrations, Nos. 576,222; 584,323; 620,217; 1,586,636; 2,495,769; and 5,894,091. USPTO records list all six as live registrations for SLOAN owned by Sloan Valve Company, a Delaware corporation. The oldest, No. 576,222, registered in 1953 for flush valves and related equipment in Class 11. No. 584,323 (1954) covers rubber-like plumbing parts such as gaskets, valve seats, and diaphragms in Class 17, No. 620,217 (1956) is a stylized SLOAN for shower heads, No. 1,586,636 (1990) is a stylized SLOAN for plumbing fixtures including flush valves, faucets, and hand dryers, and No. 2,495,769 (2001) covers electrically operated hand dryers, faucets, and flush valves and their repair parts in Classes 9 and 11. No. 5,894,091, registered in 2019 in standard characters, covers goods in Classes 6, 9, 11, 17, and 21, from manifolds and sensors to plumbing fixtures, rubber parts, and soap dispensers, and USPTO records show a combined Sections 8 and 15 declaration accepted on August 4, 2026.
What the complaint alleges
Sloan alleges that since September 2023 its authorized resellers have agreed to an eCommerce Reseller Policy that sets handling, packaging, and sourcing rules and prohibits sales on Amazon, and that its published limited warranty, except as applicable law may require, is void unless the product was bought from an authorized reseller. It alleges the defendants are not authorized resellers, that they list Sloan products as New on Amazon although the products carry no Sloan warranty, and that the missing warranty and Sloan's inability to verify their quality controls make the products non-genuine and materially different from those sold through authorized channels. It says it understands the defendants do not follow its quality controls and work together to buy, store, and resell the products. The complaint describes the goods only as Sloan's products; it does not name particular product lines or listings in its text, and it cites Exhibits D.1 and D.2 for the storefront sales. No count alleges counterfeiting.
According to the complaint, Sloan has known of the sales since at least September 2024 and its counsel sent cease-and-desist letters on September 18, October 8, and October 25, 2024, which were delivered to Flex Panther's address at the time in Yucca Valley, California, and a fourth letter on September 2, 2026, which was delivered to both that address and the current Murrieta address. It says the final letter pointed to an earlier suit Sloan brought in the same court against other unauthorized resellers, No. 1:25-cv-06289, that the defendants never responded, and that sales continued. On the dilution count, the complaint alleges the SLOAN marks have become famous, and it alleges, on information and belief, that the defendants' products are not sold in accordance with its quality controls.
Relief requested
The prayer asks for a declaration that the defendants are not authorized to sell Sloan products, permanent injunctions against selling the products and using Sloan's intellectual property, compensatory damages, disgorgement of profits on the common law unfair competition claim and the four Lanham Act claims, attorneys' fees and costs, and an order piercing the corporate veil to hold White personally liable. In the Lanham Act counts, Sloan also seeks injunctive relief under 15 U.S.C. § 1116 and increased damages under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a), and it alleges the infringement is willful. The complaint states no damages figure.