The Litigator’s Travel Companion’s 15 Minutes of Fame

See the person in the suit or other “formal” business attire carting “bankers boxes” down a city street or through the skyway? More likely than not, this would be a lawyer on his or her way to a deposition or hearing, armed with a trusty cart and boxes o’ dox.

It is not often that the loyal but lowly pushcart is in the limelight, but the Welcom Products, Inc. Magna Cart MCX pushcart is front-and-center in design patent/Lanham Act litigation U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota (U.S. Dist. Judge Susan Richard Nelson).  

The recent decision of Judge Nelson is of broader interest to litigators not just because of the attention given to our quiet, solid, and trusted traveling companion but also because of what the Court has to say about the application of the summary judgment standard to an affirmative defense that has a “clear and convincing evidence” burden of proof (that is, invalidity of a patent), the need (or “non-need”) for a showing of damages for a Lanham Act violation (for an allegedly literally false statement that pushcarts were “Made in Taiwan” when allegedly manufactured in China).