United States Fourth Circuit

In plaintiff's suit against one of its competitors for violation of various federal and state laws, for marketing and selling to distributors an inferior paper toweling specifically manufactured by defendant for use in plaintiff's trademarked paper towel dispensers, judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) because plaintiff has proffered sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find, by a preponderance of the evidence, in favor of plaintiff with respect to each element of plaintiff's contributory trademark infringement and unfair competition claims under the Lanham Act and its unfair competition claim under North Carolina common law, district court' grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant with respect to those claims is vacated and remanded; 2) summary judgment in favor of defendant with respect to plaintiff's tortious interference with contract claim is vacated and remanded with limiting instructions since, because the record cannot support a finding that plaintiff had contractual relationships with the end-user customers, this claim is limited to whether defendant tortiously interfered with plaintiff's contractual relationships with distributors; and 3) district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of plaintiff with respect to its claim under the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act is affirmed.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/11/2010
• Decided 08/10/2010
• Published 08/10/2010

Judges

• HAMILTON

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Albert P. Allan, Stephen Patrick Demm