With more than a decade of experience as an intellectual property lawyer representing big-name companies, Lucy Wheatley said she’s never come across a situation where a judge imposed the most severe sanction: dismissal with prejudice.

That is, until U.S. District Judge James P. Jones of the Western District of Virginia dismissed a trademark infringement case against her client, Virox Technologies Inc., and awarding a then-unspecified sum in fees and costs.