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Go Home: No “Prevailing Party” Status After Voluntary Dismissal Without Prejudice

by | Aug 15, 2024 |

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s ruling that a copyright holder’s voluntary dismissal of its claims did not render the defendant a prevailing party entitled to attorneys’ fees under the Copyright Act. Affordable Aerial Photography, Inc. v. Prop. Matters USA, LLC, Case No. 23-12563 (11th Cir. July 30, 2024) (Wilson, Grant, Lagoa, JJ.)

Affordable Aerial Photography (AAP) filed suit against Property Matters and Home Junction over alleged copyright infringement of a 2010 photograph titled “Presidential Place Front Aerial 2010 AAP,” which provides an aerial view of a residential condominium complex. AAP owns all real estate photos and related products (slide shows, virtual tours, stock photography) of Robert Stevens and licenses them for limited use by customers, such as luxury real estate companies. Property Matters is a real estate brokerage, and Home Junction is a real estate marketing solutions and services provider that designed and maintained Property Matters’ website.

The work was posted with copyright management information and registered with the Copyright Office in April 2018. During or before April 2017, the work appeared on Property Matters’ website without authorization, but AAP did not discover the alleged infringement until February 2022. After AAP filed suit, Property Matters filed a motion to dismiss arguing (in relevant part) that 17 U.S.C. § 507(b) sets a three-year statute of limitations from when the claim accrued (i.e., April 2017) to bring civil action and, therefore, AAP’s suit was untimely by more than two years. The district court denied the motion without prejudice. AAP then filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i) with respect to its action against Property Matters and filed a joint notice of settlement with Home Junction soon after, which closed the case.

Property Matters then moved for attorneys’ fees under 17 U.S.C. § 505, asserting that “the court may also award a reasonable attorney’s fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs.” AAP argued that Property Matters was not the prevailing party because the voluntary dismissal was without prejudice and the limitations period had not yet expired. The district court found that the voluntary dismissal did not materially alter the legal relationship between the parties. The district court applied the “discovery rule” to conclude that AAP’s copyright infringement claim did not accrue until it discovered the alleged infringement in February 2022 and therefore AAP was not time-barred from raising its copyright infringement claim in a separate suit against Property Matters through February 2025. Property Matters appealed.

Reviewing the legal question on appeal de novo, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed. The Court reasoned that a defendant is not the prevailing party when a plaintiff’s action is voluntarily dismissed without prejudice under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i). This is true regardless of whether a statute of limitations has expired. The Court explained that a defendant does not attain prevailing party status merely because, as a practical matter, a plaintiff is unlikely or unable to refile its claims. Instead, the district court itself must act to reject [...]

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Missed Appropriation: Massive Trade Secret Verdict Vacated

by | Aug 8, 2024 |

The Court of Appeals of Virginia vacated a $2 billion award in a trade secret misappropriation case based on a series of evidential errors and improper jury instructions. Pegasystems Inc. v. Appian Corporation, Case No. 1399-22-4 (Va. Ct. App. 2024) (Beales, Friedman, Callins, JJ.)

Pegasystems and Appian are both companies in the business process management (BMP) industry and offer platforms that allow third parties to build software applications. Appian accused Pega of trade secret misappropriation, presenting evidence that Pega used the employee of a licensee of Appian’s technology to pass trade secrets to Pega, thereby enabling Pega to better market its own technology and exploit Appian’s weaknesses. Pega’s “spy,” Youyong Zou, recorded almost 100 videos of Appian’s platform and used them to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of Appian’s system in tutorials sent to Pega. Appian brough an action against Pega and Zou under the Virginia Uniform Trade Secrets Act (VUTSA) and the Virginia Computer Crimes Act. At trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Appian, finding that Pega and Zou misappropriated Appian’s trade secrets in violation of VUTSA. The jury awarded Appian damages in excess of $2 billion, which was the largest damages verdict in Virginia’s history. Pega appealed.

The Appellate Court found that although Appian did not fail as a matter of law to prove evidence of trade secret misappropriation, the trial court erred in instructing the jury by failing to place the burden of proximate causation on Appian, as required by both VUTSA and Virginia precedent. The Appellate Court found that this error resulted in a potentially excessive award that assumed all of Pega’s sales were tainted by the misappropriation. The Appellate Court instructed that on remand, Appian bears the burden of proving that the misappropriation caused the alleged damages and proving the amount of damages attributable to the trade secret with reasonable certainty. The Appellate Court also found that the trial court erroneously excluded key evidence that could have established that much of Pega’s revenue had nothing to do with the alleged misappropriation.

The Appellate Court further found that the trial court erred in excluding evidence that Pega argued would establish that many of the allegedly stolen features actually predated Pega’s contact with Zou. The trial court had excluded the evidence because the original laptop with this evidence had become inoperable. The trial court had refused to allow Pega the opportunity to authenticate the evidence and introduce the software on a new laptop. The Appellate Court found that this refusal was an abuse of discretion. The Appellate Court concluded that Pega was entitled to introduce a copy of this software under the rules of evidence, even if it was not on the original laptop.

Finally, the Appellate Court determined that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that the number of people with access to Appian’s trade secrets was “not relevant” to “any issue in this case.” The Appellate Court found that Pega’s evidence that “thousands” of people potentially had access to Appian’s [...]

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NO FAKES Act Would Create Individual Property Right to Control Digital Replicas

by | Aug 8, 2024 |

On July 31, 2024, a bipartisan group of US senators introduced the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act of 2024 to protect the voice and visual likeness rights of individuals from unauthorized use in the form of digital replicas, including digital replicas created by generative artificial intelligence (AI). The bill was introduced by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) and follows a discussion draft released in October 2023. The press release from Senator Coons’ office makes note of the many organizations that support the proposed legislation and includes quotes from representatives of SAG-AFTRA, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association, OpenAI, IBM and Creative Artists Agency.

Designed to protect all individuals (not just celebrities), the bill defines a digital replica as a newly created, computer-generated, highly realistic electronic representation that is readily identifiable as the voice or visual likeness of an individual and that is embodied in a sound recording, image, audiovisual work or transmission in which the actual individual did not perform or appear, or a version of such work in which the fundamental character of the performance or appearance has been materially altered. The bill would grant each individual or right holder the right to authorize the use of their voice or visual likeness in a digital replica, which the bill states is a property right. The bill also would establish the characteristics, requirements and duration of the license rights that can be granted in a digital replica. The right to authorize the use of an individual’s voice or visual likeness in a digital replica would not expire upon the death of the individual and would be transferable and licensable (subject to certain time limitations on the post-mortem right and registration requirements with the Register of Copyrights).

The bill would create a civil cause of action for a rights holder against any person that produces or makes available to the public an unauthorized digital replica and would provide for injunctive relief, actual or statutory damages, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. There would be a limitations period, however, and any civil action would have to be commenced no later than three years after the date on which a rights holder discovered – or with due diligence should have discovered – the violation at issue. The bill provides certain exceptions and safe harbors for the production or use of digital replicas in news, public affairs, sports, documentaries, commentary, criticism, scholarship, satire or parody, or for online services that remove or disable access to unauthorized digital replicas upon receiving a notification from the rights holder.

The bill would preempt any cause of action under state law for the protection of voice and visual likeness rights in connection with a digital replica in an expressive work, except for certain existing state statutes or common law or state statutes regulating sexually explicit or election-related digital replicas.

On August 5, 2024, the US Patent & Trademark Office hosted [...]

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Unified Front: No Forfeiture by Failing to Raise Argument in Request for Rehearing

by | Aug 8, 2024 |

Addressing forfeiture of issues on appeal and sufficiency of the asserted prior art, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a Patent Trial & Appeal Board obviousness finding, explaining that a party does not waive arguments on appeal by failing to include them in a request for rehearing. Voice Tech Corp. v. Unified Patents, LLC, Case No. 22-2163 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 1, 2024) (Lourie, Chen, Cunningham, JJ.)

Unified Patents petitioned for inter partes review (IPR) of a Voice Tech patent that purported to improve upon the prior art by allowing a single mobile device to access and control various native applications and functions on a computer. Unified alleged that the challenged claims were unpatentable as obvious over three prior art references. The Board agreed and found that all of the challenged claims were unpatentable. Voice Tech appealed.

Voice Tech argued that Unified’s petition failed to identify any disclosure in the prior art that taught the “mobile device interface” claim limitation in the challenged claims because Unified’s claim analysis failed to expressly mention a “mobile device interface.” The Board dismissed this argument, finding that Unified properly mapped its analysis of other patent claims to the “mobile device interface” claim recitation and presented a sufficient argument regarding obviousness. The Federal Circuit agreed that one of the prior art references taught a “mobile device interface.” The Court found that the Board did not rely on a new theory not found in the IPR petition, but instead had mapped the “mobile device interface” limitations to the prior art because the petition itself raised the theory.

Voice Tech also argued that the Board had failed to properly interpret certain claim terms. Unified countered that Voice Tech forfeited the claim construction arguments because they were not included in Voice Tech’s request for rehearing to the Board. The Federal Circuit disagreed, finding that a party’s choice to not re-raise an argument in a request for rehearing will not, by itself, forfeit the argument for review on appeal. The Court found that since Voice Tech had raised the claim construction arguments to the Board in its patent owner’s response, it had not forfeited those arguments on appeal.

The Federal Circuit also addressed Unified’s argument that Voice Tech’s proposed claim constructions would not change the outcome of the patentability analysis given the Board’s findings that the prior art disclosed the claim terms. The Court agreed with Unified, finding that it only needed to construe claim terms as necessary to resolve the controversy. The Court found that because Voice Tech’s responsive arguments were conclusory and failed to address how Voice Tech would be prejudiced by the Board’s adopted claim construction, the Federal Circuit did not need to consider Voice Tech’s claim construction arguments.

Finally, the Federal Circuit addressed Voice Tech’s arguments that the Board erred in finding that the prior art taught certain claim limitations and that Unified’s obviousness analysis was based on hindsight bias. The Court upheld the Board’s obviousness determinations as to all challenged claims, [...]

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Private Sale Means Public Fail

by | Aug 8, 2024 | ,

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a Patent Trial & Appeal Board decision that a private sale of a product embodying the claimed invention did not qualify as a “public disclosure” under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)(2)(B). Sanho Corp. v. Kaijet Technology Int’l Ltd, Inc., Case No. 23-1336 (Fed. Cir. July 31, 2024) (Dyk, Clevenger, Stoll, JJ.)

Sanho owns a patent directed to a port extension apparatus designed to enhance connectivity of end-user devices (such as laptops) with other devices (such as printers). Kaijet petitioned for inter partes review (IPR) challenging certain claims of Sanho’s patent, arguing that the claims were obvious based on a prior art reference. The Board found that the patent claims were invalid because of the prior art reference’s earlier effective filing date. Sanho argued that a prior sale of its HyperDrive device by the inventor of the patent should disqualify the reference as prior art. However, the Board determined that Sanho failed to demonstrate a public disclosure of the HyperDrive sale before the prior art reference’s effective filing date. Thus, the patent was invalidated. Sanho appealed.

The Federal Circuit affirmed, explaining that the America Invents Act (AIA) redefined prior art, shifting from a first-to-invent to a first-inventor-to-file system. Under the AIA, prior art includes patents and applications filed before the patent’s effective filing date subject to exceptions for public disclosures by the inventor. Sanho argued that the HyperDrive sale fell into this exception.

The Federal Circuit dismissed Sanho’s argument that the phrase “publicly disclosed” in § 102(b)(2)(B) should encompass all types of disclosures described in § 102(a)(1), including private sales. The crux of the issue was whether placing an invention “on sale” was tantamount to a “public disclosure” under § 102(b)(2)(B). The statute states that a disclosure is not prior art if the subject matter was publicly disclosed by the inventor before the effective filing date of the prior art. Sanho argued that “publicly disclosed” includes any disclosure, even private sales. The Court disagreed, explaining that the statute’s use of “publicly” implies a narrower scope than just “disclosed.” The Court noted that the purpose of this exception is to protect inventors who make their inventions available to the public before another’s patent filing.

The Federal Circuit also relied on legislative history in support of the conclusion that “public disclosure” in § 102(b)(2)(B) means the invention must be made available to the public. Sanho argued that as long as there are no confidentiality requirements, all disclosures, even private sales, should constitute public disclosures. Again, the Court rejected that argument, noting that the statute differentiates between “publicly disclosed” and general “disclosures,” implying different meanings.

The Federal Circuit determined that § 102(b)(2)(B) protects inventors who publicly disclose their inventions from subsequent disclosures by others, ensuring that prior public disclosure by the inventor prevents a third party’s disclosure from becoming prior art. This provision aims to encourage inventors to share their innovations with the public.

Practice Note: For a disclosure to qualify as “public” under the [...]

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PTAB MTA Pilot Program to the Rescue

by | Aug 1, 2024 |

On review of a final written decision from the Patent Trial & Appeal Board in an inter partes review (IPR), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that all challenged claims were obvious but left open the possibility of the patent owner amending the claims under the Motion to Amend (MTA) Pilot Program. ZyXEL Communications Corp. v. UNM Rainforest Innovations, Case Nos. 22-2220; -2250 (Fed. Cir. July 22, 2024) (Dyk, Prost, Stark, JJ.)

ZyXEL Communications petitioned for IPR challenging claims 1 – 4, 6, 7 and 8 of a patent owned by UNM Rainforest Innovation (UNMRI). The patent relates to methods for constructing frame structures in communication systems using orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) technologies. The patent describes a method for constructing a frame structure with two sections, each of which is configured for a different communication system, where the second communication system is used to support high mobility users (i.e., faster moving users).

Before the Board, ZyXEL argued that claims 1 – 4, 6 and 7 were unpatentable in light of two prior art references (Talukdar and Li), and that claim 8 was unpatentable in light of Talukdar and another prior art reference (Nystrom). During the Board proceedings, UNMRI filed a contingent motion to amend if any of the challenged claims were found to be unpatentable. As part of its motion, UNMRI requested preliminary guidance from the Board pursuant to the Board’s MTA Pilot Program. In its opposition to UNMRI’s motion to amend, ZyXEL argued that UNMRI’s amended claims lacked written description support, and in its preliminary guidance, the Board agreed. UNMRI attempted to file a revised motion to amend, but the Board rejected the revised motion and instead permitted UNMRI to file a reply in support of its original motion. It also allowed ZyXEL to file a sur-reply. The Board determined that claims 1 – 4, 6 and 7 were unpatentable, but that claim 8 was not. The Board also granted UNMRI’s motion to amend and determined that the new claims were nonobvious over the prior art of record. Both sides appealed.

With respect to the Board’s decision on the obviousness of claims 1 – 4, 6 and 7, the Federal Circuit found that substantial evidence supported the ruling. UNMRI’s primary argument was that a person of skill in the art (POSA) would not have been motivated to combine Talukdar and Li, but the Court credited the Board’s reliance on ZyXEL’s expert, who demonstrated sufficient motivation to combine the two references.

The Federal Circuit reversed the Board’s finding that claim 8 had not been shown to be obvious, however. The Court noted that while the Nystrom reference may not explicitly state the benefit of the missing limitations, “a prior art reference does not need to explicitly articulate or express why its teachings are beneficial so long as its teachings are beneficial and a POSA would recognize that their application was beneficial.”

Regarding UNMRI’s motion to amend, ZyXEL argued that the Board erred in granting the [...]

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Don’t Mess With Anna: Texas Town Schools Patent Owner on § 101

by | Aug 1, 2024 |

On cross-appeals from a granted Fed. R. of Civ. Pro. 12(c) motion on subject matter eligibility, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that a patent directed to a method for “assist[ing] an investigator in conducting a background investigation” did not claim patent-eligible subject matter, but that the mere assertion of the patent did not render the case “exceptional” for the purposes of attorneys’ fees. Miller Mendel, Inc. v. City of Anna, Texas, Case No. 22-1753 (Fed. Cir. July 18, 2024) (Moore, C.J.; Cunningham, Stoll, JJ.)

Miller Mendel sued the City of Anna, Texas, for infringement of claims directed to software for managing pre-employment background investigations based on the Anna police department’s use of the Guardian Alliance Technologies (GAT) software platform. Miller Mendel’s complaint asserted “at least claims 1, 5, and 15” of the patent, each of which generally recited a “method for a computing device with a processor and a system memory to assist an investigator in conducting a background investigation” comprising the steps of receiving data identifying the applicant, storing the data, transmitting an applicant hyperlink to the applicant’s email address and receiving an applicant’s response.

Anna moved for judgment on the pleadings, alleging that the patent claims were ineligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. § 101. After the district court granted the motion, Miller Mendel filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that the district court lacked jurisdiction to invalidate any unasserted patent claims. The district court denied the reconsideration motion but clarified that its decision was limited to asserted claims 1, 5 and 15. Anna also filed a motion for attorneys’ fees, which the district court denied, finding that the case was not exceptional. Miller Mendel appealed the § 101 issue, and Anna cross-appealed on the unasserted claims and attorneys’ fees issues.

The Federal Circuit first addressed Miller Mendel’s argument that the district court erred in relying on a declaration filed by Anna in ruling on the Rule 12(c) motion. The Court acknowledged that a Rule 12(c) motion must be treated as one for summary judgment if matters outside the pleadings are presented to and not excluded by the court. However, the district court explained that the declaration was not relevant to its decision, and it did not rely on any material outside the pleadings in its § 101 analysis. Thus, the Federal Circuit found that any error in failing to explicitly exclude the declaration was harmless.

Turning next to the patent eligibility analysis, the Federal Circuit agreed with the district court that under Alice step one, the asserted claims were directed to the abstract idea of performing a background check. The claims and specification emphasized that the invention was a system to “help a background investigator more efficiently and effectively conduct a background investigation” by “automating a majority of the tasks of a common pre-employment background investigation so that fewer hardcopy documents are necessary.” In other words, the problem facing the inventor was the abstract idea of performing background checks more efficiently [...]

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Beware Equitable Doctrine of Issue Preclusion in Multiparty, Multivenue Patent Campaigns

by | Aug 1, 2024 |

Addressing for the first time whether an invalidity order merges with a voluntary dismissal for purposes of finality, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that an interlocutory order merges with the final dismissal, rendering the interlocutory order final for purposes of issue preclusion. Koss Corp. v. Bose Corp., Case No. 22-2090 (Fed. Cir. July 19, 2024) (Hughes, Stoll, Cunningham, JJ.). As a consequence, the Federal Circuit found that the patent owner’s appeal from an adverse decision in an inter partes review (IPR) was moot under the doctrine of nonmutual collateral estoppel.

In July 2020, Koss filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Bose in the Western District of Texas, asserting three patents whose common specification discloses a “wireless earphone that communicates with a digital-audio source, such as an iPod, over an ad hoc wireless network like Bluetooth.” The same day, Koss asserted the same patents against Plantronics. Bose filed a motion challenging venue and also petitioned for inter partes review (IPR) of the three patents. Later in 2020, Bose filed a declaratory judgment action seeking a declaration of noninfringement in the District of Massachusetts on the three patents Koss asserted against Bose in the Texas litigation. The Massachusetts litigation was stayed pending the resolution of the venue motions in the Texas case.

In 2021, the Texas court dismissed Koss’s complaint against Bose for improper venue. Koss then asserted a counterclaim of infringement of the same three patents in the Massachusetts litigation. The Massachusetts court again stayed the litigation pending the resolution of the IPRs, which (by that time) the Patent Trial & Appeal Board had instituted. Meanwhile, Koss’s case against Plantronics was transferred to the Northern District of California, and Plantronics moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that all the asserted claims (which included all the claims asserted against Bose) were invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The California court granted Plantronics’s motion, rendering all the asserted claims invalid. However, that order did not finally dispose of the case.

Koss then moved for leave to amend its complaint, which the California district court granted. In the amended complaint, Koss asserted two additional patents. Plantronics moved to dismiss the asserted claims in those patents as invalid under § 101. The parties fully briefed Plantronics’s motion, but before the district court issued a decision on the merits of that motion, Koss voluntarily stipulated to dismissal with prejudice, disposing of the lawsuit in its entirety. Koss did not ask the district court to vacate its earlier order finding certain claims invalid under § 101. The California district court then issued an order dismissing the case with prejudice. The deadline for Koss to appeal the judgment came and went – Koss did not appeal.

Arguing that the patents had been finally adjudicated invalid in the Plantronics litigation, Bose moved to dismiss Koss’s appeal from the Board in the IPR proceedings as moot. Koss opposed the motion, arguing that its amended complaint rendered the invalidity decision on the prior complaint non-final because the [...]

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UK Court of Appeal Increases FRAND Rate, Applies It Outside Limitations Period

by | Aug 1, 2024 | ,

The UK Court of Appeal found that the UK High Court of Justice applied flawed reasoning in setting a global fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) royalty rate for a patent portfolio essential to 3G, 4G and 5G cellular technologies. Interdigital Tech Corp. et al. v. Lenovo Group Limited, Case Nos. CA-2023-001489; -001492 (July 12, 2024) (Arnold, Nugee, Birss, LJ.) The Court of Appeal not only concluded that a higher rate was appropriate but applied the rate to sales prior to the limitations period.

In March 2023, the High Court issued its decision in InterDigital v. Lenovo, concluding that Lenovo should pay InterDigital a FRAND rate of $0.175 per cellular unit for a worldwide license to InterDigital’s portfolio. The High Court also found that Lenovo should pay the FRAND rate for all previous unlicensed sales, even if those sales occurred before the statutory damages limitation period. The High Court calculated that the $0.175 rate yielded a lump sum payment from Lenovo to InterDigital of $138.7 million for sales from 2007 to the end of 2023. The High Court’s FRAND rate determination was closer to Lenovo’s offered rate of $0.16 per unit than to InterDigital’s demand of $0.498 per unit. Both parties appealed.

Lenovo argued that the High Court wrongly found that Lenovo should pay a royalty for sales made outside of the six-year limitation period. The Court of Appeal disagreed, finding that the statute of limitations period has no role to “play in a determination of FRAND terms between (necessarily) a willing licensor and a willing licensee.” The Court of Appeal explained that a willing licensor would not “refuse to pay whatever license fees were eventually determined to [be] applicable” to products outside the limitations period and would not be considered willing if it refused. The Court of Appeal concluded that a willing licensee would not try to benefit from delay in agreeing FRAND terms or payment of FRAND royalties and, therefore, would pay with respect to all past units. From a policy perspective, the Court of Appeal noted that there should not be an incentive for the licensee to delay negotiations to minimize the amount it should be required to pay.

InterDigital challenged the per unit rate set by the High Court, including the rate derived from one of the comparable licenses and the adjustments made to reflect Lenovo’s position vis-à-vis the licensee. The Court of Appeal found that the High Court’s rate determination was internally inconsistent because it found that InterDigital had been forced to heavily discount past sales and this aspect was not FRAND while also declining to make any correction to the blended rate that had been derived from the license to account for non-FRAND factors. The Court of Appeal also found that the High Court did not properly justify rejecting InterDigital’s allocation of the lump sum paid by the licensee between past sales and future sales, which would have led to a higher rate.

The Court of Appeal conducted a detailed review of the [...]

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David-Versus-Goliath Trademark Victory Isn’t Necessarily “Exceptional”

by | Jul 25, 2024 |

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated an award of attorneys’ fees for reanalysis, explaining that the district court’s finding that the case was “exceptional” under the Lanham Act was based on policy considerations rather than the totality of the circumstances. Lontex Corp. v. Nike, Inc., Case Nos. 22-1417; -1418 (3rd Cir. July 10, 2024) (Hardiman, Matey, Phipps, JJ.)

Lontex Corporation is a small Pennsylvania business that manufactures and sells compression apparel to professional athletes and the public. Since 2008 it has held a registered trademark for the mark COOL COMPRESSION, which it used in conjunction with its sale of apparel. In 2015, Nike rebranded an athletic clothing line that included a category of “Cool” products designed to reduce body temperature, as well as various fits, including “Compression.” It also began using the words “Cool” and “Compression” together in the names of Nike clothing products sold online and in Nike catalogues. Nike used “Cool Compression” as a product name on tech sheets, which are internal documents used to explain Nike products to employees and third-party retailers.

The following year, upon discovering Nike’s use of the phrase “Cool Compression,” Lontex sent Nike a cease-and-desist letter. Nike’s lawyers directed the company to stop using the phrase “as soon as possible.” Nike took steps to remove the phrase from its website and catalogs but not its tech sheets. Two years later, Nike reached out to its third-party retailers and asked them to stop using “Compression” in product names.

Lontex sued Nike for trademark infringement of its COOL COMPRESSION mark, for contributory infringement based on its supply of “Cool Compression” products to retailers, and for counterfeiting. The district court dismissed the counterfeiting claim, and a jury trial was held on the infringement actions. The jury returned a verdict for Lontex, finding Nike liable for willful and contributory infringement. The jury awarded Lontex $142,000 in compensatory damages and $365,000 in punitive damages but declined to award Lontex disgorgement of Nike’s profits.

Post-trial, Nike renewed motions for judgment as a matter of law on fair use, trademark infringement, contributory infringement, willfulness and punitive damages. Lontex moved for disgorgement of profits and trebling of the damages awarded by the jury. The district court granted Lontex’s request for treble damages, increased the compensatory award to $426,000, and separately awarded Lontex almost $5 million in attorneys’ fees after finding that the case was “exceptional” under the Lanham Act. Both parties appealed.

As to the willfulness finding, Nike argued that the jury should not have been permitted to infer willfulness solely from its continued use of the mark after it received its cease-and-desist letter. The Third Circuit disagreed, pointing out that not only did Nike adopt the “Cool Compression” phrase without doing a trademark search, it also continued to use the phrase after receiving Lontex’s cease-and-desist letter and being advised by its own legal team to stop using it as soon as possible. The Court concluded that a jury could reasonably infer willful infringement. For similar reasons, [...]

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