Fiat-Chrysler ‘First Sale’ Bluetooth Defense Revived by 9th Cir.

FCA US LLC convinced a federal appeals court that the “first sale” doctrine applies when a trademarked product is incorporated into a new product, reviving an FCA defense against Bluetooth SIG Inc.'s trademark claims.

Wednesday’s precedential ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said a federal court in Washington state incorrectly limited the defense to overly narrow circumstances, bolstering the number of paths for FCA to ward off liability. The precedent cited for the stocking-and-selling standard didn’t intend the description to represent the “outer bounds of the first sale doctrine” while others extended it further, the ...