Cite as: 532 U. S. 424 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
same sort of potential harm to Leatherman or to customers as that which may arise from traditional passing off." Id., at 4a. The Court of Appeals made clear, however, that it did not condone the passing off. "[A]t a minimum," it observed, "[the passing off] gave Cooper an unfair advantage" by allowing it to use Leatherman's work product "to obtain a 'mock-up' more cheaply, easily, and quickly" than if it had waited until its own product was ready. Ibid. Accordingly, the Court of Appeals concluded, "the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to reduce the amount of punitive damages." Ibid.
Cooper's petition for a writ of certiorari asked us to decide whether the Court of Appeals reviewed the constitutionality of the punitive damages award under the correct standard and also whether the award violated the criteria we articulated in Gore. We granted the petition to resolve confusion among the Courts of Appeals on the first question.4 531 U. S. 923 (2000). We now conclude that the constitutional issue merits de novo review. Because the Court of Appeals applied an "abuse of discretion" standard, we remand the case for determination of the second question under the proper standard.
4 Respondent and its amicus at times appear to conflate the question of the proper standard for reviewing the District Court's due process determination with the question of the substantive standard for determining the jury award's conformity with due process in the first instance. See Brief for Arthur F. McEvoy as Amicus Curiae 13 ("[O]n appeal the litigant's objection to the substance of the jury's holding—whether on liability or damages—should be evaluated under a 'rational factfinder' standard . . ."); Brief for Respondent 13. The former is the question we agreed to review. The latter question has already been answered in BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U. S. 559 (1996). Thus, our rejection in TXO Production Corp. v. Alliance Resources Corp., 509 U. S. 443 (1993), of "heightened scrutiny" of punitive damages awards, see id., at 456, is not only wholly consistent with our decision today, it is irrelevant to our resolution of the question presented.
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