In Anthem Sports v. Under the Weather, the plaintiffs sued for false advertising and other claims arising out of the sale of "sportspods," which are small tents that are used for watching outdoor sporting events in bad weather. There's a complicated history between the parties here, who are competitors in the sportspods market, and many claims were asserted in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs based their false advertising claim on a statement made by one of the defendants that the Anthem products are "knockoffs of very poor or inferior quality."
The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut held that the plaintiffs failed to allege a plausible false advertising claim, holding that statements like "knockoffs" and "very poor or inferior quality" are simply statements of opinion which are not actionable under the Lanham Act.
The court wrote, "Because the offending comments about Anthem's products constitute opinion and puffery, they are not 'false or misleading representation[s] of fact'." On that basis, the court dismissed the plaintiff's false advertising claim.
For more about this case, check out Professor Rebecca Tushnet's interesting blog post about this.
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