Pretrial Conference Held Today for Macy's vs. Penney's

Macy's Inc.'s legal dispute against Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is set to go to trial on Feb. 25 reports WWD. The presiding Judge Jeffrey Oing set the contract dispute case's pretrial conference for today, Feb. 19 in New York State Court. According to sources, the judge has blocked off three weeks for the trial and there will be no jury present.

As of now, Macy's has the exclusive right to sell certain Martha Stewart-branded products. But, in December 2011, Martha Stewart made a deal with Penney's to create Martha Stewart shops-in-shop for February 2013. Penney's also bought a 16.6% stake in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Last summer, Macy's sued both J.C. Penney and Martha Stewart Living, separately, seeking to end their agreement. Macy's succeeded in winning a preliminary injunction against Martha Stewart in July, barring the sale of certain home goods at Penney's. One month later, Oing ruled that Penney's could indeed move forward with its planned Martha Stewart shops-in-shop in the spring.

The judge has no consolidated these two cases. Stay tuned for more as the trial gets underway.