Raj Abhyanker’s Firm Ordered to Pay $90k+ for Ill-Advised Trademark Enforcement Lawsuit–LegalForce v. LawFirms

In one of Judge Alsup’s last rulings before he retired, after a bench trial he rejected LegalForce’s trademark claims over the LawFirms logo (the first logo was pre-litigation; the defendant switched to the second logo during the litigation). (Reminder: LegalForce runs Trademarkia). It was a classic Judge Alsup move. The plaintiff’s dubious assertions survived a motion to dismiss, but Judge Alsup hammered the plaintiff when its proof ultimately didn’t support its claims. In my prior blog post, I wrote: This case cries out for a trademark fee shift to the defense. That would be the appropriate consequence for forcing a 4-day trial and a 31 page opinion that repeatedly triggered the “what are we doing here?” meme. However, because the judge wasn’t pleased with the defense’s conduct either, the judge might decide to let each party marinate in the litigation choices they made. Judge Alsup retired before resolving the fee request, so Judge Corley drew the short straw to resolve this…