A federal district court’s award of attorney fees under the Lanham Act and Utah’s Truth in Advertising Act (UTIAA) to a defendant following the parties’ stipulation of dismissal has been vacated and the case remanded by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver. The defendant was not a prevailing party entitled to attorney fees under the Lanham Act because there was no court action that materially altered the legal relationship between the parties. While it was possible that the defendant could be considered a prevailing party for purposed of the UTIAA, the case was remand for analysis of the factors governing prevailing party status under Utah law in the first instance and for determination, if appropriate, of the portion of fees incurred in defense of the UTIAA claim and the reasonableness of the requested fees (Xlear, Inc. v. Focus Nutrition, LLC, June 26, 2018, McHugh, C.).
Case date: 26 June 2018
Case number: No. 17-4126
Court: United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.
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