The Greek organizations claimed Abraham was not entitled to a laches defense because he had unclean hands.

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Essentially, a defendant that intentionally infringes a trademark in bad faith does not have the clean hands necessary to assert the defense of laches.

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However, laches may or may not defeat claims for injunctive relief.

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First he argued laches, the legal term meaning Lemelson had waited too long to press claims over his bar-code reader supposedly invented in the early 1950s.

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The district court which heard the case decided for the State Board based on the doctrine of laches, which means that Perry et al sued too late.

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