Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Co., a South Dakota Corporation; F.l. Thorpe & Company, Inc., a South Dakota…

Summary

The South Dakota Supreme Court held that the earlier federal judgment bars the state actions under the doctrine of res judicata and that the antitrust counterclaims asserted by the defendants could not succeed, thereby affirming the trial court’s dismissals. The Court reasoned that the same wrong—unfair competition over the term “Black Hills Gold”—was litigated and decided in the federal case and that the Noerr‑Pennington doctrine barred the antitrust claims.