Eastman Chemical Co. v. PlastiPure, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
775 F.3d 230 (2014)
Eastman Chemical (plaintiff) made BPA-free plastics, and its competitor PlastiPure (defendant), affiliated with a lab that later published a scientific article on various plastics without naming Eastman, distributed an advertising brochure at trade shows falsely claiming Eastman's plastics contained estrogenic activity. A jury found PlastiPure's statements about Eastman's products false, and the district court enjoined PlastiPure, which argued its claims were immune from Lanham Act liability because they touched on matters of ongoing scientific debate.
Whether the Lanham Act prohibits false commercial speech even if the speech makes claims that are open to scientific or public debate.