Congratulations to Womble Bond Dickinson client Doctor’s Best Inc. On July 15, the company obtained a complete victory in the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the district court’s judgment of no likelihood of confusion as a matter of law in a trademark infringement matter.

A Womble team led by Warren Bleeker and including attorneys John Carson and Chris Underwood, paralegal Stacy Goodwin, and legal practice assistant Linda Bolter represented Doctor’s Best in this appeals court win.

The case originally was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The dispute involved the extraterritorial reach of the Lanham Act under the Supreme Court’s recent Abitron case. The plaintiff owns a series of longstanding NATURE’S WAY registrations. Doctor’s Best recently began using the NATURE’S DAY mark, all for nutritional supplements.

Doctor’s Best and the Womble team had prevailed on summary judgment based on no likelihood of confusion (the client’s products are made in and shipped from the U.S. but sold and marketed abroad). The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling in a 21-page opinion, holding that “no rational jury could find that [Doctor’s Best’s] domestic conduct infringed [Nature’s Way’s] protected trademarks in violation of the Lanham Act” and noting that the opposing side’s arguments were premised on a “misreading of Abitron.”

Warren argued the case to the Ninth Circuit in February.

Click here to read coverage of the decision at Law360.