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K & N Engineering, Inc. v. Bulat

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
510 F.3d 1079 (2007)

Written by Philip Glass, JD

Facts

K & N Engineering, Inc. (K&N) (plaintiff) initiated litigation against Sarah Bulat (defendant) in the United States District Court for the Central District of California for trademark counterfeiting under 15 U.S.C. § 1114(1)(a). K&N sought to obtain statutory damages under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(c) instead of actual damages under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a). Pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 1117(b), a plaintiff could receive attorney’s fees alongside treble actual damages for trademark counterfeiting. By contrast, 15 U.S.C. § 1117(c) did not authorize awarding attorney’s fees in the event of a statutory-damages award. K&N filed a motion for summary judgment, which the district court granted, awarding K&N a statutory-damages award of $20,000 and attorney’s fees of $100,000. Bulat appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, alleging that the district court abused its discretion in awarding statutory damages under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(c) and attorney’s fees under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(b).

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Holding and Reasoning (Ikuta, J.)

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