Intellectual Property — Lanham Act

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U.S. Supreme Court

Civil

Intellectual Property — Lanham Act

Lost sales and damage to business reputation fall within the zone of interests protected by the Lanham Act.

A statutory cause of action is also presumed to be limited to plaintiffs whose injuries are proximately caused by violations of the statute. See, e.g., Holmes v. Securities Investor Protection Corporation, 503 U. S. 258, 268–270. This requirement generally bars suits for alleged harm that is “too remote” from the defendant’s unlawful conduct, such as when the harm is purely derivative of “misfortunes visited upon a third person by the defendant’s acts.” Id., at 268–269. In a sense, all commercial injuries from false advertising are derivative of those suffered by consumers deceived by the advertising. But since the Lanham Act authorizes suit only for commercial injuries, the intervening consumer-deception step is not fatal to the proximate-cause showing the statute requires. Cf. Bridge v. Phoenix Bond & Indemnity Co., 553 U. S. 639, 656. Thus, a plaintiff suing under §1125(a) ordinarily must show that its economic or reputational injury flows directly from the deception wrought by the defendant’s advertising; and that occurs when deception of consumers causes them to withhold trade from the plaintiff.

697 F. 3d 387, affirmed.

12-873 Lexmark International Inc. v. Static Control Components Inc.

Scalia, J.