Supreme Court Questions Whether Foreign Trademark Infringement Verdict Should Stand

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sits for a group photograph of the justices at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

A domestic manufacturer urged the Supreme Court on March 21 to uphold a $90 million award against a foreign company for trademark infringement almost all of which took place outside the United States.

The case concerns the reach of the Lanham Act of 1946, a federal law that regulates trademarks and unfair competition. The presumption in the United States is that U.S. laws do not apply to foreign conduct but that presumption is called into question here because the conduct that took place outside the country had an effect on U.S. commerce.