In June 2014 the Civil Chamber of Panama's Supreme Court of Justice, in a majority decision, ordered Bridgestone Corporation and Bridgestone Licensing Services Inc to pay Muresa and Tire Group of Factories Ltd Inc damages of $5 million plus $431,000 in costs and court expenses following a finding that the filing by Bridgestone of a trade mark opposition was made in bad faith, leading to the cessation of the commercialisation of products covered by the RIVERSTONE trade mark.
The decision was supported by the filing of evidence to the effect that Muresa had suffered commercial damage as it had to use other marks, including marks of inferior quality, in order to supply market demand.
This blogger is not familiar with any other instances of damages being filed for wrongful opposition and wonders if readers can enlighten him: is this something that extends beyond Panama?
Source: "Bridgestone ordered to pay $5 million in damages in RIVERSTONE case", by Marissa Lasso De La Vega (Alfaro Ferrer & Ramirez, Panama), published in the World Trademark Review.
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