Results

Plaintiff v. Ultraviolet Lamp and Fixture Seller

April 2010

On the first day of a federal jury trial in California, Sedgwick settled a two-year-old intellectual property lawsuit in favor of our clients, an ultraviolet (UV) lamp and fixture seller and the company’s founder. The founder had previously worked for the plaintiff; however, he left to start his own business to compete against the plaintiff. The plaintiff then filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit alleging that our clients conspired to misappropriate confidential and patented technologies, infringed its trademark and trade dress in advertising and manufacturing products, falsely designated product origin, and breached contracts.  In turn, our clients filed an indemnity complaint against their UV fixture supplier, who then asserted four counterclaims against our clients. Despite plaintiff’s aggressive litigation tactics, Sedgwick obtained summary judgment on all of plaintiff’s claims  against the company founder and all but one claim -- trademark infringement  -- against the company.  We also defeated the plaintiff's summary judgment motion on the trademark infringement claim. At trial, plaintiff offered to withdraw its remaining claim and pay damages on the counterclaims. Sedgwick then used our clients’ summary judgment against the fixture supplier as leverage to renew a manufacturing agreement.