Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-352_c0n2.pdf
Page Number: 4.0

Cite as:  575 U. S. ____ (2015) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 13–352 
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B&B HARDWARE, INC., PETITIONER v. HARGIS 

INDUSTRIES, INC., DBA SEALTITE BUILDING 

FASTENERS, DBA EAST TEXAS 

 FASTENERS ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT
 

[March 24, 2015]

 JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. 
Sometimes  two  different  tribunals  are  asked  to  decide 
the  same  issue.    When  that  happens,  the  decision  of  the
first  tribunal  usually  must  be  followed  by  the  second,  at 
least  if  the  issue  is  really  the  same.  Allowing  the  same
issue  to  be  decided  more  than  once  wastes  litigants’  re-
sources  and  adjudicators’  time,  and  it  encourages  parties
who  lose  before  one  tribunal  to  shop  around  for  another.
The  doctrine  of  collateral  estoppel  or  issue  preclusion  is 
designed to prevent this from occurring.

This case concerns the application of issue preclusion in
the context of trademark law.  Petitioner, B&B Hardware, 
Inc.  (B&B),  and  respondent  Hargis  Industries,  Inc.  (Har-
gis), both use similar trademarks; B&B owns SEALTIGHT 
while  Hargis  owns  SEALTITE.  Under  the  Lanham  Act, 
60  Stat.  427,  as  amended,  15  U. S. C.  §1051  et seq.,  an 
applicant  can  seek  to  register  a  trademark  through  an
administrative  process  within  the  United  States  Patent 
and  Trademark  Office  (PTO).  But  if  another  party  be-