The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision challenging a $96 million verdict in a trademark dispute between an Oklahoma radio control systems company, Hetronic, and their former partners in Europe, collectively Abitron, has a large impact on the extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act by U.S. courts and presages’ continued efforts to trim the extraterritorial application of federal law.

Peter B. "Bo" Rutledge, dean of the University of Georgia School of Law.Peter B. "Bo" Rutledge, dean of the University of Georgia School of Law. Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge, dean of the University of Georgia School of Law.

The case was captioned Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc. The two provisions of the Lanham Act at issue, §1114(1)(a) and §1125(a)(1), prohibited the use in commerce of protected trademarks that are likely to cause confusion. Hetronic sought damages against Abitron for its infringing use in commerce worldwide, and Abitron asserted that this extraterritorial application was impermissible.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]