Sally Beauty testified that similarities were coincidental. (Its attorneys, Jonathan Gordon and Casondra Ruga of Alston & Bird, could not be reached for comment.) The jury didn't buy it. After deliberating for six hours, it found that Mixed Chicks had suffered $839,535 in actual damages, and that Sally Beauty had acted willfully, resulting in a punitive damages award of $7.27 million.
"Others will enter the market, but we're not afraid of competition—as long as it's fair competition," Etheredge says.
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