Sleep Number Rival Asks 8th Cir. to Revive Antitrust Claims

Dires LLC asked the Eighth Circuit to revive its antitrust claims against Sleep Number Corp. ahead of a second trademark trial in October, all part of decade-long litigation between the parties.

A federal judge wrongly dismissed claims it filed after Sleep Number continued to claim trademark rights in “number bed” despite a 2017 jury finding otherwise, Dires argued in its opening brief to the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The district court said it dismissed the case because the Noerr-Pennington doctrine shields Sleep Number from liability for non-sham litigation.

The appeal tests the boundaries of that doctrine—which ...