Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
10-2354
IN THE
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES........................................................................ ii
INDENTITIES, INTERESTS, AND SOURCE OF AUTHORITY ........... 1
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ............................ 3
ARGUMENT ................................................................................................ 7
I. Decades of Jurisprudence Have Demonstrated the Utility
and Necessity of Perception Survey Evidence.................................. 7
A. The Lanham Act’s Structure and Purpose Renders
Perception Survey Evidence Uniquely Helpful to the
Trier of Fact. .............................................................................. 9
B. Given Its Probative Nature, Consideration of
Perception Survey Evidence Has Become Woven
Into the Fabric of Lanham Act Law. ..................................... 14
C. Courts Have Limited Litigants’ Ability to Offer
Consumer Survey Evidence Only in Cases in Which
Such Evidence Would Not Impact Liability. ......................... 16
II. The District Court’s Decision Is Wrong as a Matter of
Settled Law and Public Policy. ........................................................ 21
A. The District Court’s Decision Contradicts This
Circuit’s Precedents and Misapplies Others’. ....................... 22
B. Limitations of Proof on the Ability to Establish the
Deceptiveness of “True” Statements Undercut the
Lanham Act’s Competition and Consumer
Protection Goals. ..................................................................... 27
CONCLUSION........................................................................................... 32
CERTIFICATIONS.................................................................................... 33
i
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Cases
Abbott Labs v. Mead Johnson & Co., 971 F.2d 6 (7 th Cir. 1992) ............ 21
Clorox Co. P.R. v. Procter & Gamble Comm’l Co., 228 F.3d 24
(1st Cir. 2000) ................................................................. 21, 23, 25, 27
H.N. Heusner & Son v. Federal Trade Commission, 106 F.2d 596
(3d Cir. 1939) .................................................................................... 29
IQ Prods. Co. v. Pennzoil Prods. Co., 305 F.3d 368 (5th Cir. 2002) ....... 23
ii
Mead Johnson & Co. v. Abbott Laboratories, 209 F.3d 1032
(7th Cir. 2000)....................................................................... 25, 26, 27
Security Center, Ltd. v. First Nat. Secur. Centers 750 F2d 1295
(5th Cir. 1985)................................................................................... 15
Statutes
Other Authorities
iii
Jacoby, et al., Survey Evidence in Deceptive Advertising Cases
Under the Lanham Act: An Historical View of Comments
From the Bench, 1148 PLI/Corp 231 (1999) ............................. 10, 11
iv
IDENTITIES, INTERESTS, AND SOURCE OF AUTHORITY TO
FILE OF AMICI CURIAE
States.
1
As leading representatives of the United States survey and public
opinion research industry, CASRO and AAPOR have direct and unique
cases. For decades, courts have welcomed, and in many cases required
makers; and the reasons why the lower court’s decision, if upheld,
2
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
cases have offered evidence, in the form of audience (usually, but not
3
defendant’s packaging misled, or likely would mislead, consumers into
believing that the rum originated in Cuba. The court believed that it
consumers.” Pernod Ricard USA LLC v. Bacardi USA, Inc., No. 06-505-
The lower court was mistaken. As set forth below, the text and
advertisement’s impact. See Section I.A. Given its benefits, the use and
evidence has frequently been held to be a fatal flaw. See Section I.B. In
the course of more than 50 years of experience with Lanham Act claims,
such survey evidence not appropriate, and then only because it is not
4
challenged through survey evidence, as such statements, in context,
decision of the Seventh Circuit to the facts of this case, while ignoring
should instead be used by the court for this purpose. The amended
5
that Seventh Circuit pre-amendment decision, regardless of any
vacuum, but misleading in the real world. See id. The decision below
should be reversed.1
6
ARGUMENT
No area of the law has proven more fertile for the use of survey
7
members are likely to be confused or misled, perception studies are
question such cases pose: at the time the intended audience member
Act cases. At the same time, courts have been careful not to restrict
be. The science of surveying has developed along with the Lanham Act
those results. Denying litigants the right to offer such facially valid
8
A. The Lanham Act’s Structure and Purpose Renders
Perception Survey Evidence Uniquely Helpful to the
Trier of Fact.
Act’s structure and substance impliedly recognizes the need for, and
9
under it. The Act today authorizes a party to sue a competitor that, in
Historical View of Comments From the Bench, 1148 PLI/Corp 231, 233
the utility of survey evidence in Lanham Act actions. Given the identity
10
survey evidence providing the reactions of “numerous girls and women,”
the trial court’s analysis was no better than “a guess,” as “neither the
trial judge nor any member of this court is (or resembles) a teen-age girl
Rohrlich, 167 F.2d 969, 974, 976-77 (2d Cir. 1948) (Frank, J.,
disputed trademark:
11
[T]he Lanham Act does not look to whether one individual …
is confused or misled, but rather to whether there is a
likelihood that a significant fraction of the (an) appropriate
public will be confused. …The essential issue of whether or
not there is a likelihood of confusion in Lanham Act cases is:
“How will a cross-section of people perceive competing
trademarks and/or advertising?” …
consumer at the time the Lanham Act is intended to protect them; that
live in court, the testimony gleaned would be less probative than that
12
That is, survey evidence, while circumstantial in one sense, is direct in
the sense that matters most: how the potentially affected public
Beecham Corp., 960 F.2d 294, 297-98 (2d Cir. 1992). As the leading
treatise author on Lanham Act false advertising and trademark law put
Destileria Serralles, Inc., 921 F.2d 467, 476 (3d Cir. 1990)). 3
the Lanham Act, and thereby advance its goals. As one court noted,
consumers who were misled into purchasing) in Lanham Act cases, “is
13
almost impossible to obtain” See Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. McNeil-
Cases, 624 PLI/Pat 351, 359 (1992). As a practical matter, the offering
likelihood of harm, and prevent further harm. See id. Moreover, the
approach. See Zippo Mfg. Co. v. Rogers Imports, Inc., 216 F. Supp. 670,
the state of the public mind – “do not produce equally probative
evidence”).
14
such evidence with a survey of its own. Nonetheless, consistent with
furtherance of its goals, and with the fact that survey evidence aids in
Nat. Secur. Centers 750 F2d 1295 (5th Cir. 1985) (lack of survey
standard of proof); see also E.S. Originals, Inc. v. Stride Rite Corp., 656
43 Wm. & Mary L. Rev 417, 428, (2001) (citing cases); McCarthy,
15
come to expect that a survey will be introduced to aid the court in
evidence may suggest “a litigant is less than deadly serious about its
1037 (2007)).
Any judicial rule prohibiting litigants from using “the main tool
16
surveys, “are, at best, imperfect instruments for measuring human
surveys, the Manual for Complex Litigation has contained factors for
17
seven factors to consider regarding survey evidence). There also is a
“[o]bjective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play
with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they
Yale and Brown Universities, New World (1896). The question is not
such, there should be, and there are, very few instances in which a
18
Those instances derive from the text of the Lanham Act itself,
in some courts); or (2) “literally true, but ... likely to mislead and
Products Company, 987 F.2d 939 (3d Cir. 1993). Thus, a Lanham Act
v. Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Pharms., Inc., 19 F.3d 125, 129 (3d Cir. 1994);
Pharm., 290 F.3d 578, 586-87 (3d Cir. 2002). Courts reason that, when
19
perception study to support a conclusion that the advertiser has made a
“fell for” the false representation is not necessary to form the judicial
deception).
Inc., 902 F.2d 222, 228-229 (3d Cir. 1990) (original emphasis). Such
129-30. Other circuits agree with the standard applied by this Court.
See, e.g., Clorox Co. P.R. v. Procter & Gamble Comm’l Co., 228 F.3d 24,
20
33 (1st Cir. 2000); Abbott Labs v. Mead Johnson & Co., 971 F.2d 6, 13
Havana Club rum. The lower court refused to consider the survey. The
questions for this Court are whether the lower court adequately
hold otherwise. In doing so, the lower court’s decision, if not reversed,
21
risks undermining the competition and consumer protection goals the
survey conducted by that expert. See id. at *5. That survey tested,
offer of such evidence. See, e.g., Novartis, 290 F.3d at 590-91; Rhone-
P.C.C., 938 F.2d 1544, 1548-49; IQ Prods. Co. v. Pennzoil Prods. Co.,
22
Pernod’s survey purported to show that Bacardi’s use of the
name “Havana Club” misled more than 20% of rum consumers into
believing that the product was made in Cuba, or confused the same
This Court previously has found that perception study results at similar
Novartis, 290 F.2d at 594. Thus, the findings of the expert here could
disclosure” that the product was “Puerto Rican Rum” and “crafted in
stated instead that “an ad that is truthful on its face cannot be proven
23
defendant’s rum,” the court explained, it was “not deceptive,” regardless
Laboratories, 201 F.3d 883, 886 (7th Cir. 2000), and from discussion of
whether a label was misleading in claiming its product was the “1st
Choice of Doctors.” See id. at 883. The plaintiff sought to offer survey
below, noted that the claim was, with respect to the definitions in one of
its dictionaries, direct, clear and true, thus not misleading: “[w]hen the
absolute level of preference for the leading product is high, and the
but impossible to call the claim of ‘first choice’ misleading.” Id. at 884.
controversy since its release. Several months after its issuance, the
24
Seventh Circuit, per curiam, amended the decision in important ways.
See 209 F.3d 1032 (7th Cir. 2000) (amending opinion). Other courts
Trademark Rep. 615, 626-31 (2005) with Edman, Lies, supra, at 433-37.
did not cite – sheds significant light on the limits of the original one.
false.” See Mead Johnson, 209 F.3d at 1034. The amended decision
designed to mislead” – that the lower court here cited favorably. That
25
Our fundamental conclusion is that a producer cannot make
a factual issue just by conducting surveys about how science
is done (or, worse, about how surveys should be conducted).
The sort of survey evidence Mead Johnson gathered would
not support a conclusion by a reasonable person that
Abbott’s claim either was false or implied a falsehood.
Id. at 1034.
one claim – 1st Choice of Doctors – standing alone, was the focus of the
26
line that “was an integral part of a television commercial with
survey evidence, that the presence of the unclear words “Havana Club”
the literally true phrase “Puerto Rican Rum.” Unlike “First Choice,”
“Havana Club,” as applied to Bacardi’s Rum, does not have a clear and
of this Court’s precedents, it does not apply here, and should not have
The problems with the district court’s opinion do not end with its
under the rubric of truth and cuts at the core of the Lanham Act.
Put another way, the decision of the district court disregards the
fact that surveys have become a necessary aspect of Lanham Act cases
27
precisely because disputed claims that are literally true can be, and
those unaware that “egress” was a fancy word for “exit,” causing many
to go through a self-locking door and end up out on the street. They had
to pay another quarter to reenter and finish their tour. See, e.g., the
http://www.ringling.com/explore/history/ptbarnum_1.aspx.
These Cigars are made in the United States and only of United States
company was improper. See H.N. Heusner & Son v. Federal Trade
Commission, 106 F.2d 596, 597 (3d Cir. 1939) (“the implication of the
28
word ‘Havana’ is totally false. The purchaser can be guided by either
deceived 32.7% of consumers into thinking that the product was made
in Scotland. Id. at 641-42. Though the label expressly stated that the
product was made in the United States, the court enjoined the use of
moisturizing strip on its shaving razor was “six times smoother” than
its competitor’s strips, while showing a man rubbing his hand down his
face. While this may have been literally true, the court rejected
moisturizing strip on the razor’s head was smoother. Instead, the court
29
found that the claim falsely implied that the consumer would receive a
under other statutes. These entities often do not have the resources or
It is true that the Lanham Act will not protect against claims to the
30
otherwise, clever use of innuendo, indirect intimations, and ambiguous
American Home Prods., 577 F.2d at 165. It cannot be the case that
personal inference.
CONCLUSION
31
Respectfully submitted,
32
CERTIFICATIONS
certifies as follows:
of this Court.
App. P. 32(a)(7)(B) and 29(d) because this brief contains 6,126 words,
32(a)(7)(B)(iii).
CM/ECF. Ten paper copies of the brief have been sent by FedEx to the
Clerk’s office on the same day as this brief is being filed electronically.
4. The text of the electronic brief and the paper copies is identical.
virus was detected. The program used was ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4,
33