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By agreeing to review a win by a US company against its European distributor, the Supreme Court will wade into how foreign sales can influence damages awards. Sarah Speight garners views from trademark attorneys at Rothwell Figg and Fish & Richardson, who examine whether the top court will address a split among the circuits.
Under what circumstances can a US company claim damages for trademark infringement based purely on foreign sales of offending products?
That is the question that will be addressed by the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) in its upcoming review of a dispute between Hetronic International—a US industrial radio remote control company—and its former European distributor Abitron Germany.
The case centres upon ‘copycat’ industrial remote control products made and sold outside of the US by Abitron, and therefore concerns the extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act, which provides civil remedies for infringement of US trademarks.
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SCOTUS, Lanham Act, trademarks, US, Hetronic, Abitron, technology, Jess Collen, Cynthia Johnson Walden