Dewberry Ruling Is A Wakeup Call For Trademark Owners

The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Dewberry Group Inc. v. Dewberry Engineers Inc. was limited to answering one question: whether the trial court erred in treating the profits of the defendant's affiliates as a defendant's profits within the meaning of Section 1117(a) of the Lanham Act.

The court found that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia erred for two primary reasons.

First, because "defendant" is not a defined term in the Lanham Act, courts must give it its common legal meaning, i.e., the party named in the complaint — in this case, the Dewberry Group.

And second, the common law principle of corporate separateness mandates that courts treat parties and their nonparty affiliates as separate legal entities or persons when they are separately incorporated or organized — this was the case for Dewberry Group and its affiliates. The Supreme Court vacated the trial court's monetary award and remanded the case for