New Kids on the Block v. New America Pub., Inc.

• Decision Date: 24 July 1992
• Docket Number: 90-56258,Nos. 90-56219,s. 90-56219
• Parties: , 20 Media L. Rep. 1468 The NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, a Massachusetts general partnership consisting of Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood, Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight and Joe McIntyre; Dick Scott Entertainment, Inc.; Infotainment, Inc.; Winterland Concessions Co. Inc.; Big Step Productions, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. NEWS AMERICA PUBLISHING, INC., d/b/a/ Star Magazine; Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc., d/b/a/ USA Today, Inc., Defendants-Appellees. The NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, a Massachusetts general partnership consisting of Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood, Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight and Joe McIntyre; Dick Scott Entertainment, Inc.; Infotainment, Inc.; Winterland Concessions Co. Inc.; Big Step Productions, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. GANNETT SATELLITE INFORMATION NETWORK, INC., d/b/a/ USA Today, Inc., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 302

971 F.2d 302

23 U.S.P.Q.2d 1534, 20 Media L. Rep. 1468

The NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, a Massachusetts general

partnership consisting of Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood,

Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight and Joe McIntyre; Dick Scott

Entertainment, Inc.; Infotainment, Inc.; Winterland

Concessions Co. Inc.; Big Step Productions, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. NEWS AMERICA PUBLISHING, INC., d/b/a/ Star Magazine;

Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc.,

d/b/a/ USA Today, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.

The NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, a Massachusetts general

partnership consisting of Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood,

Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight and Joe McIntyre; Dick Scott

Entertainment, Inc.; Infotainment, Inc.; Winterland

Concessions Co. Inc.; Big Step Productions, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. GANNETT SATELLITE INFORMATION NETWORK, INC., d/b/a/ USA

Today, Inc., Defendant-Appellee.

Nos. 90-56219, 90-56258.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Dec. 4, 1991.

Decided July 24, 1992.

Philip Heller, James L. Warren, Edward P. Davis, Jr., Kevin M. Fong, Judy Alexander, Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, San Francisco, Cal., for the plaintiffs-appellants.

Rex S. Heinke, Kelli L. Sager, Jeri C. Okamoto, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant-appellee News America Pub., Inc.

Charles P. Diamond, Craig A. Corman, O'Melveny & Myers, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant-appellee Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Before SCHROEDER and KOZINSKI, Circuit Judges, and ORRICK, Jr., ^* District Judge.

KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge.

The individual plaintiffs perform professionally as The New Kids on the Block, reputedly one of today's hottest musical acts. This case requires us to weigh their rights in that name against the rights of others to use it in identifying the New Kids as the subjects of public opinion polls.

Background

No longer are entertainers limited to their craft in marketing themselves to the public. This is the age of the multi-media publicity blitzkrieg: Trading on their popularity, many entertainers hawk posters, T-shirts, badges, coffee mugs and the like--handsomely supplementing their incomes while boosting their public images. The New Kids are no exception; the record in this case indicates there are more than 500 products or services bearing the New Kids trademark. Among these are services taking advantage of a recent development in telecommunications: 900 area code numbers, where the caller is charged a fee, a portion of which is paid to the call recipient. Fans can call various New Kids 900 numbers to listen to the New Kids talk about themselves, to listen to other fans talk about the New Kids, or to leave messages for the New Kids and other fans.

The defendants, two newspapers of national circulation, conducted separate polls of their readers seeking an answer to a pressing question: Which one of the New Kids is the most popular? USA Today's announcement contained a picture of the New Kids and asked, "Who's the best on the block?" The announcement listed a 900 number for voting, noted that "any USA Today profits from this phone line will go to charity," and closed with the following:

New Kids on the Block are pop's hottest group. Which of the five is your fave? Or are they a turn off? ... Each call costs 50 cents. Results in Friday's Life section.

The Star's announcement, under a picture of the New Kids, went to the heart of the matter: "Now which kid is the sexiest?" The announcement, which appeared in the middle of a page containing a story on a New Kids concert, also stated:

Which of the New Kids on the Block would you most like to move next door? STAR wants to know which cool New Kid is the hottest with our readers.

Readers were directed to a 900 number to register their votes; each call cost 95 cents per minute. ¹

Fearing that the two newspapers were undermining their hegemony over their fans, the New Kids filed a shotgun complaint in federal court raising no fewer than ten claims: (1) common law trademark infringement; (2) Lanham Act false advertising (3) Lanham Act false designation of origin; (4) Lanham Act unfair competition; (5) state trade name infringement; (6) state false advertising; (7) state unfair competition; (8) commercial misappropriation; (9) common-law misappropriation; and (10) intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. The two papers raised the First Amendment as a defense, on the theory that the polls were part and parcel of their "news-gathering activities." The district court granted summary judgment for defendants. 745 F.Supp. 1540 (C.D.Cal.1990).

Discussion

While the district court granted summary judgment on First Amendment grounds, we are free to affirm on any ground fairly presented by the record. Jackson v. Southern Cal. Gas Co., 881 F.2d 638, 643 (9th Cir.1989); Pelleport Inv., Inc. v. Budco Quality Theatres, Inc., 741 F.2d 273, 278 (9th Cir.1984). Indeed, where we are able to resolve the case on nonconstitutional grounds, we ordinarily must avoid reaching the constitutional issue. In re Snyder, 472 U.S. 634, 642-43, 105 S.Ct. 2874, 2879-80, 86 L.Ed.2d 504 (1985); Schweiker v. Hogan, 457 U.S. 569, 585, 102 S.Ct. 2597, 2607, 73 L.Ed.2d 227 (1982). Therefore, we consider first whether the New Kids have stated viable claims on their various causes of action.

I

A. Since at least the middle ages, trademarks have served primarily to identify the source of goods and services, "to facilitate the tracing of 'false' or defective wares and the punishment of the offending craftsman." F. Schechter, The Historical Foundations of the Law Relating to Trade-marks 47 (1925). The law has protected trademarks since the early seventeenth century, and the primary focus of trademark law has been misappropriation--the problem of one producer's placing his rival's mark on his own goods. See, e.g., Southern v. How, 79 Eng.Rep. 1243 (K.B.1618). The law of trademark infringement was imported from England into our legal system with its primary goal the prevention of unfair competition through misappropriated marks. See, e.g., Taylor v. Carpenter, 23 F.Cas. 742 (C.C.D.Mass.1844) (Story, J.). Although an initial attempt at federal regulation was declared unconstitutional, see the Trade-Mark Cases, 100 U.S. 82, 25 L.Ed. 550 (1879), trademarks have been covered by a comprehensive federal statutory scheme since the passage of the Lanham Act in 1946.

Throughout the development of trademark law, the purpose of trademarks remained constant and limited: Identification of the manufacturer or sponsor of a good or the provider of a service. ² And the wrong protected against was traditionally equally limited: Preventing producers from free-riding on their rivals' marks. Justice Story outlined the classic scenario a century and a half ago when he described a case of "unmitigated and designed infringement of the rights of the plaintiffs, for the purpose of defrauding the public and taking from the plaintiffs the fair earnings of their skill, labor and enterprise." Taylor, 23 F.Cas. at 744. The core protection of the Lanham Act remains faithful to this conception. See 15 U.S.C. § 1114 (prohibiting unauthorized use in commerce of registered marks). Indeed, this area of the law is generally referred to as "unfair competition"--unfair because, by using a rival's mark, the infringer capitalizes on the investment of time, money and resources of his competitor; unfair also because, by doing so, he obtains the consumer's hard-earned dollar through something akin to fraud. See Paul Heald, Federal Intellectual Property Law and the Economics of Preemption, 76 Iowa L.Rev. 959, 1002-03 (1991).

A trademark is a limited property right in a particular word, phrase or symbol. ³ And although English is a language rich in imagery, we need not belabor the point that some words, phrases or symbols better convey their intended meanings than others. See San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. U.S.O.C., 483 U.S. 522, 569, 107 S.Ct. 2971, 2998, 97 L.Ed.2d 427 (1987) (Brennan, J., dissenting) ("[A] jacket reading 'I Strongly Resent the Draft' would not have conveyed Cohen's message."). Indeed, the primary cost of recognizing property rights in trademarks is the removal of words from (or perhaps non-entrance into) our language. Thus, the holder of a trademark will be denied protection if it is (or becomes) generic, i.e., if it does not relate exclusively to the trademark owner's product. See, e.g., Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co., 305 U.S. 111, 59 S.Ct. 109, 83 L.Ed. 73 (1938) ("shredded wheat"); Eastern Air Lines, Inc. v. New York Air Lines, Inc., 559 F.Supp. 1270 (S.D.N.Y.1983) ("air-shuttle" to describe hourly plane service). This requirement allays fears that producers will deplete the stock of useful words by asserting exclusive rights in them. ⁴ When a trademark comes to describe a class of goods rather than an individual product, the courts will hold as a matter of law that use of that mark does not imply sponsorship or endorsement of the product by the original holder.

A related problem arises when a trademark also describes a person, a place or an attribute of a product. If the trademark holder were allowed exclusive rights in such use, the language would be depleted in much the same way as if generic words were protectable. Thus trademark law recognizes a defense where the mark is used only "to describe the goods or services of [a] party, or their geographic origin." 15 U.S.C. § 1115(b)(4). "The 'fair-use' defense, in essence, forbids a trademark registrant to appropriate a descriptive term for his exclusive use and so prevent others from accurately describing a characteristic of their goods." Soweco, Inc. v. Shell Oil Co., 617 F.2d 1178, 1185 (5th Cir.1980). Once again, the courts will hold as a matter of law that the original producer does not sponsor or endorse...