DSPT International, Inc. v. Nahum

624 F.3d 1213, 97 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1022, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 22107, 2010 WL 4227883
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 27, 2010
Docket08-55062
StatusPublished
Cited by99 cases

This text of 624 F.3d 1213 (DSPT International, Inc. v. Nahum) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
DSPT International, Inc. v. Nahum, 624 F.3d 1213, 97 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1022, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 22107, 2010 WL 4227883 (9th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

KLEINFELD, Circuit Judge:

We address the scope of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.

I. Facts

This case was tried to a jury, and the appellant challenges the jury verdict, so we “view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party ... and draw all reasonable inferences in that party’s favor.” 1

DSPT, founded and owned by Paolo Dorigo, designs, manufactures, and imports men’s clothing. The company sells clothes to between 500 and 700 retailers. It sells mostly shirts, but also some knitwear, trousers, and t-shirts. Its brand name since 1988 had been Equilibrio. To serve a younger market with somewhat “trendier, tighter fitting fashion,” the company created the EQ brand name in 1999.

At about that time, Dorigo brought his friend Lucky Nahum into the business. Dorigo lived in Los Angeles, Nahum in Rochester, New York. They decided to set up a site on what was then the fledgling internet, and Nahum’s brother, a hairdresser, was doing part-time website design, so DSPT had Nahum arrange to have *1217 his brother prepare the site. The website, “www.eq-Italy.com” (eq for the brand, Italy for Dorigo’s and the style’s origin), was created solely for DSPT for the purpose of showing DSPT clothes. Nahum’s brother designed the website in consultation with Dorigo, though Nahum registered the site to himself. This seemed trivial at the time, since Nahum was working exclusively for DSPT and registration cost only $25. Dorigo, who was not knowledgeable or interested in computer matters, was unaware that the registration was in Nahum’s name.

The importance of the website grew with the importance of the internet. By 2005, the website served as DSPT’s catalog. Customers accessed it 24 hours a day, chose designs from it, and sent in orders through it. DSPT e-mailed them about new items on the site. Salesmen sold DSPT clothes to retailers by referring them to pictures on the website and soliciting their orders based on the pictures.

Unfortunately, during the same period, the friendship between Dorigo and Nahum soured. Nahum’s DSPT contract was up for renewal August 31, 2005, so Dorigo sent him a proposal in mid-August. At the same time, DSPT paid Nahum’s airfare, hotel, and meals for a trip to Las Vegas for the West Coast Exclusive Wear show, an offshoot of the largest menswear show in the world (MAGIC, Men’s Apparel Guild in California) which was taking place in Las Vegas. But while there, Nahum spent time in a competitor’s booth, and arranged employment with that DSPT competitor. Though Dorigo was also at the show and asked Nahum whether he would be renewing his contract, Nahum only informed Dorigo by e-mail after the show that he was not renewing his contract.

At the beginning of October, DSPT’s website mysteriously disappeared. If a customer typed “eq-Italy.com” into his web browser, instead of seeing DSPT’s clothing line, all he saw was a screen saying “All fashion related questions to be referred to Lucky Nahum at: lnahum@ yahoo.com.” Nahum had no use for the website, but he told his new boss at DSPT’s competitor that “he had inserted that sentence in order to get Equilibrio [DSPT’s older brand] to pay him funds that were due to him.” DSPT repeatedly but unsuccessfully asked Nahum to give back the website.

This created a crisis for DSPT. Retailers do around three fourths of their business during the last quarter of the year, so wholesalers and manufacturers, like DSPT, do a large percentage of their business supplying retailers during October, November, and the first part of December. DSPT’s website in the fall also generated the orders for the upcoming spring. Without its website, DSPT could not sell anything in a manner approaching its previous efficiency. It was forced to go back to the old way of sending out samples, but retailers did not want to deal with DSPT using the old method. Sales plummeted and inventory was left over in the spring from the very bad fall. 2004 had been good, and the first quarter of 2005 was the best ever, but the last quarter of 2005, and all of 2006, were disastrous. A lot of inventory had to be sold below cost. DSPT spent $31,572.72, plus a great deal of time, writing to customers to explain the situation and replacing its website and the stationery that referred customers to “eq-Italy.com.”

DSPT sued Nahum for “cybersquatting” and trademark infringement in violation of the Lanham Act. 2 Nahum counterclaimed *1218 for $14,936.86 in additional commissions he claimed he was owed.

The case was tried to a jury. The jury retened a special verdict, finding, among other things, that “EQ” and “Equilibrio” were valid trademarks owned by DSPT; that “Lucky Nahum registered, trafficked in, or used the www.eq-Italy.com domain name”; that the name was identical or confusingly similar to DSPT’s distinctive trademark; and that “Lucky Nahum committed] the acts with a bad faith intent to profit from DSPT’s mark.” The jury found that DSPT’s damages were $152,000. As for Nahum’s counterclaim for commissions, the jury found that DSPT did not breach its contract with him and owed him nothing.

The district court denied Nahum’s renewed motions for judgment as a matter of law, remittitur, and new trial. Nahum appeals, and we affirm.

II. Analysis

A. Standard of Review

We review denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo, 3 and denial of a motion for new trial and remittitur for abuse of discretion. 4 A district court may grant a new trial only if the jury verdict is contrary to the clear weight of the evidence. 5 The district court’s denial of a motion for a new trial is reversible “only if the record contains no evidence in support of the verdict” or if the district court “made a mistake of law.” 6 “A jury’s verdict must be upheld if it is supported by substantial evidence, which is evidence adequate to support the jury’s conclusion, even if it is also possible to draw a contrary conclusion.” 7 “We must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party ... and draw all reasonable inferences in that party’s favor.” 8 A jury verdict should be set aside only when “the evidence permits only one reasonable conclusion, and that conclusion is contrary to the jury’s verdict.” 9

On appeal, Nahum argues that the anticybersquatting statute has no application to the conduct in this case, that DSPT did not own the trademarks and that EQ-Italy was not identical or confusingly similar to DSPT’s marks, that there was no evidence of bad-faith intent to profit, and that there was insufficient evidence to support the damages award.

B. The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
624 F.3d 1213, 97 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1022, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 22107, 2010 WL 4227883, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dspt-international-inc-v-nahum-ca9-2010.