US Shoe Corp. v. Brown Group, Inc.

• Decision Date: 11 May 1990
• Docket Number: No. 90 Civ. 0907 (PNL).,90 Civ. 0907 (PNL).
• Citation: 740 F. Supp. 196
• Parties: The UNITED STATES SHOE CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. BROWN GROUP, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

740 F. Supp. 196

The UNITED STATES SHOE CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. BROWN GROUP, INC., Defendant.

No. 90 Civ. 0907 (PNL).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

May 11, 1990.

Blum Kaplan, New York City (Randy Lipsitz, Howard M. Gitten, of counsel), for plaintiff.

Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, New York City (J. Christopher Jensen, of counsel), for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

LEVAL, District Judge.

Plaintiff United States Shoe Corp. ("U.S. Shoe"), asserts trademark violation and unfair competition against Brown Group, Inc., in connection with the advertising and sale of women's dress shoes. Plaintiff advertises its women's dress pumps under the slogan and musical jingle, "Looks Like a Pump, Feels Like a Sneaker." Defendant has launched an advertising campaign that compares its pump to a sneaker and asserts that it "feels like a sneaker." Plaintiff seeks a preliminary injunction barring defendant from using the phrase. An evidentiary hearing was held on submission.

Background

The facts are largely undisputed. In August 1987, the plaintiff began to sell walking shoes under the Easy Spirit trademark. In or around October 1988, the plaintiff introduced under the same trademark a line of "comfortable women's dress pumps" which were intended to incorporate design and comfort elements of the plaintiff's walking shoes. Since that time, Easy Spirit pumps have been promoted and advertised by associating them with sneakers, and in particular by using the slogan or tag line, "Looks Like a Pump, Feels Like a Sneaker." Hepting Affidavit at 2. This slogan has been prominently featured in plaintiff's print ads, point of purchase displays, catalog sheets and promotional brochures. Exhibits 1-6 to Hepting Affidavit. It has also been used in a widely distributed television commercial, in which the slogan is sung while women are pictured playing basketball in Easy Spirit dress shoes. Hepting Affidavit at 2. The plaintiff spent more than nine million dollars on advertising including the slogan in 1988 and 1989. Id. at 3-4. During this time, sales increased dramatically. Id. at 4-5. Sales of Easy Spirit pumps increased between 56% and 133% in the relevant market in the several weeks following runs of plaintiff's television commercial. Id. at 5.

The defendant is the manufacturer and distributor of the NaturalSport line of walking shoes, and also of the Townwalker, a comfortable women's dress pump considered to be one of the key competitors of the Easy Spirit dress pump. In mid-1988, defendant retained the advertising agency D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles ("D'Arcy") to develop an ad campaign for the Townwalker and other NaturalSport shoes. D'Arcy recommended a campaign to communicate the basic product concept of the Townwalker: "a sneaker in a pump." Zimmerman Declaration at 3-4. D'Arcy submitted several proposed print ads for the Townwalker to the defendant, including some which used the slogan, "The pump that feels like a sneaker." The defendant rejected these ads, in part because of their similarity to plaintiff's advertising slogan, "Looks Like a Pump, Feels Like a Sneaker," of which defendant was aware. Id. at 4-5. See also Zimmerman Deposition at 37 (defendant aware of plaintiff's slogan when selecting its own advertisements); Newton Affidavit at 12-13 (D'Arcy aware of plaintiff's slogan when creating advertisements for defendant).¹

The print advertisement ultimately selected by defendant features a photograph of a women's pump with the headline, "Think Of It As A Sneaker With No Strings Attached." The text of the ad includes the phrase, "And when we say it feels like a sneaker, we're not just stringing you along." The ad includes the NaturalSport logo, the slogan, "Walk Our Way" and the words "From Naturalizer," which defendant uses to advertise other styles of shoe in the NaturalSport line. Zimmerman Declaration at 5-6.

Plaintiff contends that the Townwalker ad's statement "And when we say it feels like a sneaker" is deliberately meant to mislead consumers into believing the Townwalker is the brand previously advertised by the slogan, "Looks Like a Pump, Feels Like a Sneaker," and thus cause consumers to purchase defendant's pump rather than plaintiff's. Plaintiff alleges that this constitutes a violation of the Lanham Act, as well as unfair competition and trademark violation under state common law.²

Discussion

In order for a movant to prevail on its motion for a preliminary injunction, it must demonstrate both "(a) irreparable harm and (b) either a likelihood of success on the merits or sufficiently serious questions going to the merits to make them a fair ground for litigation and a balance of hardships tipping decidedly in the movant's favor." Home Box Office, Inc. v. Showtime/The Movie Channel Inc., 832 F.2d 1311, 1314 (2d Cir.1987).

A. Likelihood of Success on the Merits

To prove infringement, a trademark owner must demonstrate that the alleged infringer's use of the mark is likely to cause confusion or mistake as to the origin of the two products. When a mark is made of descriptive terms, the alleged infringer may defend his use of the terms by demonstrating that he used them in good faith in their descriptive sense and not as a trademark, thus making "fair use" of descriptive terms, as codified in Section 33(b)(4) of the Lanham Act. 15 U.S.C. § 1115(b)(4).

For the purposes of plaintiff's motion, I will assume that U.S. Shoe through heavy advertising has succeeded in establishing an association in the minds of the public between its descriptive slogan and its product. Nonetheless, I conclude that defendant's advertising claim that the Townwalker shoe "feels like a sneaker" does not infringe plaintiff's trademark.

Defendant's use of the words "feels like a sneaker" falls squarely within the "fair use" defense codified in Section 33(b)(4) of the Lanham Act. The fair use doctrine provides a statutory defense to a trademark infringement claim when "the use of the name, term, or device charged to be an infringement is a use, otherwise than as a trade or service mark, ... of a term or device which is descriptive of and used fairly and in good faith only to describe to users the goods or services of such party, or their geographic origin." 15 U.S.C. § 1115(b)(4) (emphasis added). The purpose of the defense is to prevent the trademark rights of one party from being extended to preclude another party from the description of his product to the public. See Eli Lilly & Co. v. Revlon, Inc., 577 F.Supp. 477, 486 (1983). When the plaintiff chooses a mark with descriptive qualities, the fair use doctrine recognizes that "he cannot altogether exclude some kinds of competing uses," particularly those which use words in their primary descriptive and non-trademark sense. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. v. Hunting World, Inc., 537 F.2d 4, 12 (2d Cir.1976). See also Wonder Labs, Inc. v. Procter & Gamble Co., 728 F.Supp. 1058, 1064 (S.D.N.Y.1990); Charles of the Ritz Group, Ltd. v. Marcon Ltd., 635 F.Supp. 158, 160-161 (S.D.N.Y.1986).

An understanding of statutory fair use doctrine depends on the purposes and justifications of the trademark law. In general, the law disfavors the grant of exclusive monopoly rights. Exceptions exist, however, where the grant of monopoly rights results in substantial benefits to society. Because of the benefits to society resulting from the ability easily to recognize the goods or services of a purveyor or manufacturer, the trademark law grants the exclusive right to employ an identifying mark. A reciprocal benefit results. The merchant is thereby permitted to profit from a well earned reputation; the public is thereby enabled to choose the products produced by those who have satisfied them in the past, avoid those that have disappointed and recognize an unknown quantity as exactly that. The benefits are great, and because potential identifying marks exist in virtually inexhaustible supply, the cost of the monopoly to society is minimal.

The cost-free aspect of the trademark depends, however, on the exclusivity being practiced only over identifiers that are not needed by others for trade communication. If only one manufacturer of candy were permitted to call the product "candy"; if only one were permitted to say that it is "lemon flavored," then society would not be enriched but impoverished. Society would be deprived of useful information about competing products, and one supplier would receive an unfair and unjustified advantage over competitors. Thus the trademark law presumptively forbids the establishment of rights over "generic" or "descriptive" marks — marks that define or describe the product. An exception was permitted, however, to a user of a descriptive mark who over time had built up a customer recognition (secondary meaning) in the mark. It would be unfair to permit competitors to piggyback on the reputation earned by such a merchant. Thus a showing of acquired secondary meaning would overcome the presumptive ineligibility of descriptive words to exclusive reservation.

A user of a descriptive word may acquire the exclusive right to use that descriptive word as an identifier of the product or source. This, however, does not justify barring others from using the words in good faith for descriptive purposes pertinent to their products. Returning to the example of the candy manufacturers, the fact that one might acquire trademark rights over a descriptive identifier like "chewy" or "lemon flavored" cannot deprive society of the opportunity to be advised by other manufacturers that their candy is chewy or lemon flavored. Therefore, notwithstanding the establishment of trademark rights over a descriptive term by a showing that it has acquired secondary meaning, the statute preserves in others the right to the use of such terms "fairly and in good faith only to describe and not to designate the goods or services." 15 U.S.C. § 1115(b)(4). The purpose of this provision is to ensure...