Appeals Court Upholds DirecTV Arguments in DBS Marketing Firm Fight

December 30, 2016 |Courts

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. District Court ruling that overturned a jury verdict in favor of direct broadcast satellite marketing firm Exclaim Marketing and granted a DirecTV counterclaim for trademark infringement. In an unpublished per curiam opinion (in Pacer) Thursday, Judges Dennis Shedd, Steven Agee and James Wynn said they agreed with the lower court's ruling that, contrary to the jury's finding, DirecTV hadn't violated the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (UDTPA), and that DirecTV was due more on its counterclaim than the jury awarded. The judges also upheld the District Court's decision denying DirecTV's motion seeking statutory attorney's fees. The Circuit Court said DirecTV's actions -- calling Exclaim call centers on average two to three times a month over the course of six years -- don't rise to the level of egregiously or aggravatingly unfair, as would be the standard under UDTPA. The 4th Circuit also said the lower court didn't abuse its discretion granting DirecTV's counterclaim motion since many of Exclaim's arguments ignore the rationale for prohibiting trademark infringement and Lanham Act language letting plaintiffs recover both actual damages and a share of defendants' profits from infringement. The panel, in affirming the lower court's ruling denying statutory attorney's fees, noted DirecTV doesn't take issue with the court's findings or otherwise engage with its analysis but instead argues it should have used a different analysis. Exclaim didn't comment. The 4th Circuit earlier this year denied a push by Exclaim for a stay of enforcement on the damages owed DirecTV while it appealed the lower court's ruling (see 1606060011). Exclaim sued DirecTV in 2015 alleging multiple UDTPA violations in connection with the DBS company allegedly telling its third-party retailers not to work with Exclaim, and DirecTV countersued for use of the DirecTV name with some of the inbound call center services Exclaim provides.