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Consumer Price Index – Portland: up 2.6% from 6/2013 to 6/2014

Latest Release: http://www.bls.gov/ro9/cpiport.htm

Area prices up 1.0 percent over the past six months, up 2.6 percent from a year ago

Prices in the greater Portland area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), advanced 1.0 percent in the first half of 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden noted that this latest six-month increase was influenced by higher prices for shelter, electricity, and food. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, six-month-to-six-month changes may reflect seasonal influences.)

Over the past 12 months, the CPI-U rose 2.6 percent. (See chart 1.) Energy prices advanced 1.4 percent, mainly due to an increase in the price of electricity. The index for all items less food and energy increased 2.7 percent over the year.

Collecting Attorney Fees under the Lanham Act

The Seventh Circuit has clarified its standard for finding a case “exceptional” under the Lanham Act for purposes of awarding attorney fees. A case is “exceptional” if a defendant is the prevailing party and the plaintiff was guilty of abuse of process in suing, or if a plaintiff is the prevailing party and the defendant persisted in a meritless defense in order to impose costs on the plaintiff. The court stated that it is not required to inquire after the state-of-mind of the non-prevailing party. Nightingale Home Healthcare Inc. v. Anodyne Therapy, LLC, ____ F3d____, 2010 WL 4721581 (C.A.7 (Ind.)), (7th Cir. Nov. 23, 2010.

Though not binding here in the 9th Circuit, this case and its standards have the potential to become the norm nationally.