A Seventh Circuit panel was dubious of an online retailer’s attempt to recover attorneys’ fees from a lighting manufacturer that accused it of counterfeiting but later dropped it from a trademark suit in Illinois federal court targeting 435 other sellers.
Hong Kong-based Lightzey told the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit at oral arguments Friday that it’s entitled to fees because Louis Poulsen A/S named the e-commerce vendor as a defendant based on deceptive evidence of infringement, causing PayPal to freeze its account with $185,000 before the company had seen the allegations.
There were “several exceptional behaviors during ...