Attorney Joseph Smith (second from left) with Static Control’s Dale Lewis, William London, Bill Swartz and Michael Swartz
Largest manufacturer of aftermarket imaging and components “strongly favoured” by court on first day of false advertising lawsuit hearing.
Static Control has reported that court proceedings have so far been leaning in its favour in the false advertising lawsuit against Lexmark, which was restarted on 3 December after Lexmark filed an appeal in January against an earlier ruling that had favoured Static Control, with the OEM granted certiorari by the Supreme Court in June.
A previously ruling had stated that Static Control had standing to make false advertising claims against Lexmark based on the Lanham Act, after the OEM had falsely told customers that Static Control had infringed its patents and falsely told remanufacturers that remanufacturing “Prebate” cartridges was illegal. The false advertising claims were originally raised during a patent infringement case between the two companies regarding the sale of microchips for laser printers and toner cartridges in 2002.
The trial court had initially rejected Static Control’s Lanham Act claim, but it had then been reinstated by the Sixth Circuit, and it is this decision that Lexmark is urging the Supreme Court to overrule.
Static Control told how during the latest hearing on 3 December 2013, the leaning of the court had “strongly favoured another win for Static Control”, with Justice Sotomayor interrupting Lexmark’s lawyer, stating: “You’re disparaging the goods of a person. You’re saying that it’s illegal to use that person’s products. It seems to me that’s the essence of the Lanham Act as it’s now written.”
Furthermore, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had commented: “Here is an entrepreneur that says, ‘We make a product and Lexmark is disparaging our product. It is essentially trying to get us out of this line of business’. Certainly if you just read the words of the Lanham Act, this is allegedly false advertising.”
Commenting on that day’s court proceedings, Bill Swartz, Co-President of Static Control, said: “We are extremely pleased with how things went today. We look forward to the court’s decision in June.”