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Claimant tobacco company awarded costs in trademark dispute
A clear-cut trademark infringement case has ended with a court breaking from standard US practice and awarding legal costs against the losing party.
Tobacco pouch: 'clear cut' infringement
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The US District Judge awarded costs to North Carolina tobacco company Lorillard after it was found the defendants showed deliberate ‘bad faith’.
Pouch packaging
Lorillard brought the case against rival brand Newport after its ‘pouch’ packaging mirrored elements of Lorillard’s own, according to a report on the Lexisnexis website by Georgia-based law firm Troutman Sanders.
Judge Gibney of the Eastern District of Virginia found that the defendants had delayed in responding to discovery, failed to appear for depositions and provided inaccurate and misleading discovery responses.
The judge also found that the defendants continued to give testimony at odds with the facts of the case at trial. All of which, ruled the court, combined to amount to litigation misconduct, leading to a finding of bad faith.
