Supreme Court Questions Whether Foreign Trademark Infringement Verdict Should Stand
A domestic manufacturer urged the Supreme Court on March 21 to uphold a $90 million award against a foreign company for trademark infringement almost all of which took place outside the United States.
The case concerns the reach of the Lanham Act of 1946, a federal law that regulates trademarks and unfair competition. The presumption in the United States is that U.S. laws do not apply to foreign conduct but that presumption is called into question here because the conduct that took place outside the country had an effect on U.S. commerce.
The court is being asked to determine if the law, which was enacted at a time when the domestic economy was less globally integrated than it is nowadays, covers conduct infringing trademarks that takes place outside the United States. Foreign governments have expressed concern about the extraterritoriality of U.S. laws….