Wwp, Inc. v. Wounded Warriors Family Support, Inc.

628 F.3d 1032 (8th Cir. 2011)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

John Melia founded P. Melia 'just wanted to provide something simple for veterans, the things that didn't have like underwear and socks and a calling card and a backpack. Melia founded WWP in the basement of his Virginia home and, with the donations he collected, delivered backpacks stocked with care and comfort items to nearby military hospitals. Today P provides bedside training about veterans' and social security disability benefits, an adaptive sports program, college preparatory courses, and small group combat stress counseling. In partnership with Trek Bicycle Corp., which donates custom-made bicycles to disabled veterans, P sponsors Soldier Ride. WWP employs over 100 people and spends 75% to 82% of donations directly on wounded soldiers and their families. P operates two websites, woundedwarrior.org and woundedwarriorproject.org, which were first registered in January 2003 and March 2004, respectively. In 2005, P registered its now famous trademark, which depicts one soldier carrying another soldier on his back. In 2003, Colonel John Folsom founded D and started a website woundedwarriors.org. At all relevant times, D conducted little to no advertising, fundraising, or marketing, instead relying on networking and its websites to receive donations. In 2006, D bought condominiums in Florida and Texas with the donations. D offers the condominiums to wounded veterans and their families for vacations. The condominiums' occupancy rate for soldiers and others staying for free is only approximately 30%, so D rents the condominiums to others at a profit when wounded veterans, their families, or D's employees are not staying in them. P became concerned about confusion in 2004 when D incorporated his charity 'Wounded Warrior, Inc.,' moved its operations to the United States, and established the woundedwarriors.org website. D’s website was extremely similar to P’s. P was contacted by individuals indicating there was some confusion and that people were trying to reach P and instead reaching D. Years later, during discovery in the instant lawsuit, P learned D was receiving and cashing a large number of checks intended for P. Prior to the name change D received an average of $1,337 per month in donations. When the woundedwarriors.org website went 'live,' D's receipts spiked to $87,895 per month. P sued D for deceptive trade practices, trademark infringement, and unfair competition. The district court entered a preliminary injunction against D. After D shut down the website, donations immediately decreased 56.2%. Using the more conservative (latter) valuation, Kirchner, P's expert calculated the amount of misdirected donations to be $1,267,729. Using the former valuation, the calculated amount of misdirected donations exceeded $2 million. D requested that P produce all documents relating to any donations that had been received since inception. P refused. D motioned to compel, and the court ruled that it was overbroad and unduly burdensome and would not lead to discovery of admissible evidence. The jury awarded P $425,000 for loss to P's reputation and goodwill and $1,267,719 on P's unjust enrichment claim for misdirected donations. D appealed. D, in part, argues the district court abused its discretion in overruling D's motion to compel.