Kramer Levin Successfully Defends Client Adblade in Multi-Million Dollar False Advertising Jury Trial

On January 22, 2015, Kramer Levin secured a favorable defense verdict in a jury trial in the Southern District of New York before the Honorable Richard J. Sullivan on behalf of its client Congoo, LLC d/b/a Adblade, an online advertising company, as well as the company’s CEO and its head of business development.

Plaintiff, Broadspring Inc., a competitor in the online advertising business, sued Adblade for false advertising and for making several allegedly false and defamatory statements to website publishers with whom Adblade and Broadspring competed to purchase advertising space. After a six day trial, the jury deliberated for two days before returning a verdict that rejected completely Broadspring’s claim that Adblade had engaged in false or misleading advertising. While finding that some of the statements made by an Adblade employee had been defamatory, the jury awarded Broadspring only $157.17 of actual damages, one dollar of assumed damages, and $40,000 total in punitive damages.  Broadspring had asked the jury to award over $20 million for Broadspring’s allegedly lost profits, disgorgement of Adblade’s profits, corrective advertising, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees. 

Litigation partner Norman C. Simon served as lead counsel on the trial.  The Kramer Levin trial team included litigation associate Samantha V. Ettari.