Seattle Trademark Lawyer

On Oct. 2, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a story on the Baden v. Molten decision in which a Western District jury awarded the plaintiff more than $8 million based on defendants’ false advertising and patent infringement. (STL’s previous post on the case here.)

Prof. Tushnet also discussed the decision. Her take:

“I’m surprised that a false claim that products were ‘innovative’ could produce such a large award. The term is at least close to puffing, unless there are more specific associated claims. I wonder if the jury wasn’t including compensation for patent infringement in there as well, despite the fact that logically the claims are independent; one could falsely advertise one’s basketballs as ‘innovative’ merely by producing standard old basketballs.”

The case cite is Baden Sports, Inc. v. Kabushiki Kaisha Molten, No. 06-210, 2007 WL 2790777 (W.D. Wash.).