Womble Bond Dickinson, McCarter & English Net Nearly $1.2 Million Fee Award

After earning a $14.7 million jury award for federal trademark infringement claims and North Carolina trade practices violations, a judge awarded the winning attorneys with Womble Bond Dickinson and McCarter & English only a quarter of the requested $4.78 million in fees.

In a ruling issued Aug. 23 in the case, Hayward Industries v. BlueWorksUS District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina awarded the plaintiff, a manufacturer a salt sanitizing system for pools, $1.19 million in attorney fees for one of four claims. In his written opinion for the court, Cogburn said that Hayward Industries was only entitled to collect fees on the Lanham Act claim lodged against competing salt chlorinator system distributors, BlueWorks Corp., Ningbo CF Electronic Tech and Ningbo Yishang Import and Export.