Appeals court to force Verisign to pay legal expenses — XYZ asks

Keeping the legal system busy.

The long-running court battle initiated by Verisign against .XYZ continues as XYZ has asked an appeals court to help it recover legal expenses.

A quick synopsis: Verisign sued XYZ for false advertising. A federal district court granted summary judgment to XYZ, and XYZ asked the court to award it legal fees of over $1 million. Verisign then appealed the original case and lost the appeal. The federal district court then ruled against awarding legal fees (beyond regarding $57,000 related to discovery.)

Now XYZ has appealed the last decision on fees to the same court that heard the other appeal.

The district court ruling on legal fees declared that XYZ “did not prove with clear and convincing evidence that this is an exceptional case.”

In its initial appeal filing, XYZ states “By doing so, the district court did not follow Georgia-Pac. Consumer Prod. LP v. von Drehle Corp., 781 F.3d 710 (4th Cir. 2015), which held that a clear-and-convincing evidence standard does not apply in a Lanham Act motion for attorney fees.”