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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Dallas Morning News
Byline: Mark Curriden
Feb. 26--PORTLAND, Ore.--For five years, two of the nation's largest hand-tool makers battled in near-obscurity in federal court in Portland over claims that one of them improperly used the competitor's product as its own in advertisements.
In fact, the case, Cooper Industries vs. Leatherman Tools, is so average and so mundane that most legal scholars, lawyers and judges are unaware that it could dramatically change how courts punish corporate wrongdoers through civil trials.
The case, which will be argued Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court, has evolved from a dispute over false advertising and trademark infringement into a constitutional battle over the power of juries, the ability of federal judges to second-guess jury decisions and how much is too much when it comes to punitive...
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