TikTok to Pay $368,274 in Trademark Case Discovery Sanctions

TikTok Inc. was ordered to pay roughly $370,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs for Stitch Editing Ltd. after a California federal judge ruled that lawyers for the video-sharing app violated discovery rules in an ongoing trademark case.

Stitch, a UK-based video-editing company that sued TikTok over the name of its “stitch” feature, sought just over $1 million in sanctions awards, but US Magistrate Judge Steve Kim on Jan. 10 granted only $358,844.20 in reasonable fees and $9,430.24 in reasonable costs.

Kim ruled in December 2022 that TikTok’s conduct during the discovery phase violated various civil procedure rules after Stitch complained ...