Landmark 2023 Supreme Court Decision Narrowing Application of US Trademark Law to Foreign Parties. ABITRON AUSTRIA GMBH ET AL. v. HETRONIC INTERNATIONAL, INC
In June 2023, the US Supreme Court addressed the scope of two provisions of the Lanham Act, namely 15 U.S.C. §1114(1)(a) and §1125(a)(1), which prohibit trademark infringement. The dispute involved Hetronic, a U.S. company, and Abitron, a group of foreign parties, regarding the unauthorized use of Hetronic’s trademarks on products sold globally by Abitron. Hetronic filed a lawsuit against Abitron under the Lanham Act, seeking damages for trademark violations occurring worldwide. Abitron argued that this constituted an impermissible extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act.
The Supreme Court, applying the presumption against extraterritoriality, clarified that the Lanham Act provisions in question do not have extraterritorial reach. These provisions extend only to claims where the infringing use of trademarks in commerce occurs domestically within the United States. Therefore, the Court ruled that Hetronic’s claims under the Lanham Act were limited to instances of domestic infringing conduct, and it overturned the lower court’s decision that extended the Act’s reach to all of Abitron’s foreign infringing activities.
Read the full opinion here.
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