Case Notes: Unfair Trade Practices

• » Crowe v. Tull | 
  No. 04SA3845, 2006 Colo. LEXIS 4 (Colo. Jan. 9, 2006)
  Deceptive Trade Practices statute applies to professional activities of lawyers who advertise.
  

  [See also: Court Decision (PDF)]

• » Caudill v. Lancaster Bingo Co. | 
  2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24621 (S.D. Ohio Oct. 24, 2005)
• » MedValUSA Health Programs, Inc. v. Memberworks, Inc. | 
  273 Conn. 634 (Conn. 2005)
  Punitive damage award in arbitration not subject to reduction based on due process or public policy grounds.
• » ATC Dist. Group, Inc. v. Whatever It Takes Transmissions & Parts, Inc. | 
  2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 5059 (6th Cir. March 30, 2005)
  Kenny Hester, an employee of ATC Distribution Group, Inc., left ATC to form his own company. In doing so, Hester hired away several of ATC’s employees, created a transmission parts catalog that was virtually identical to ATC’s catalog, and obtained ATC’s customer list.
• » Atari, Inc. v. Games, Inc. | 
  2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2868 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 23, 2005)
  Unfair competition claim dismissed under New York law where based only on misappropriation of labor and services, not of proprietary information.
• » Calvetti v. Antcliff | 
  346 F. Supp. 2d 92 (D.D.C. 2004)
  In a suit by homeowners against certain contractors for fraud and unfair trade practices, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted summary judgment to one contractor, finding no evidence of intent to deceive, but denied another’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.
• » Williams v. Purdue Pharma Co. | 
  297 F. Supp. 2d 171 (D.D.C. 2003)
  A consumer-merchant relationship for purposes of a fraudulent trade practices claim may arise between the purchaser of a drug and the manufacturer of the drug, but higher prices paid for a drug as a result of unfair trade practices were not recoverable damages.
• » 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. WhenU.Com | 
  309 F. Supp. 2d 467 (S.D.N.Y. 2003)
  Use of another’s trademark to trigger Internet pop-up advertisements is likely to infringe, supporting preliminary injunction against competitor and software company.
• » R.L. Jordan Oil Co. of North Carolina, Inc. v. Boardman Petroleum, Inc. | 
  353 F.3d 334 (4th Cir. 2003)
  Under South Carolina’s Unfair Trade Practices Act, a plaintiff may recover upon a showing of economic injury as a result of defendant’s below cost selling of motor fuel.