Thermal Design, Inc. v. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s claim under Wisc. Deceptive Trade Practices Act, where plaintiff asserted that defendant intentionally published false and misleading thermal performance standard that induced customers to purchase products from plaintiff’s commercial rivals instead of from plaintiff. Defendant was merely standards-setting organization that was not in business of selling insulation systems using subject thermal performance standard, and Wisc. statute did not apply where defendant’s actions in publishing standard was not part of commercial transaction. Moreover, Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s similar unfair competition claims, where alleged culprits of misrepresentations that generated misleading standard were not agents of defendant, but rather were agents of entities that benefited from said standard, and where plaintiff did not assert that defendant exercised any control over said agents.