Walmart Gets $95 Million Trademark Verdict Nixed for Do-Over (2)

A $95 million trademark infringement verdict against Walmart Inc. requires a re-do because the jury was improperly instructed on the meaning of willfulness, the Fourth Circuit ruled.

At issue is whether Walmart infringed Variety Stores Inc.’s “The Backyard” trademarks. The case already has had three trials and two appeals.

The district court failed to properly instruct the jury that “willfulness” doesn’t mean the defendant’s actions were “merely volitional,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in an unpublished opinion. The correct inquiry is whether the defendant acted with the intent to infringe the plaintiff’s protected mark, ...