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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 133', '§ 133', '§ 133', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 133', '§ 526', '§ 133', '§ 526', '§ 133', '§ 133', '§ 133', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', 'art. 476', 'art. 518', '§ 526', '§ 27', '§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 1060', '§ 526', '§ 526', '§ 526']

K MART CORP. V. CARTIER, INC., 486 U. S. 281 - Volume 486 - 1988 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 486 > K MART CORP. V. CARTIER, INC., 486 U. S. 281 (1988) > Full Text
unless written consent of the trademark owner is produced at the time of entry. The Customs Service's implementing regulation permits the entry of goods manufactured abroad by the "same person" who holds the United States trademark or by a person who is "subject to common control" with the United States trademark holder, 19 CFR §§ 133.21(c)(1), (2), and permits importation where the foreign manufacturer has received the United States trademark owner's authorization to use its trademark, 19 CFR § 133.21(c)(3). Respondent Coalition to Preserve the Integrity of
JUSTICE KENNEDY, joined by JUSTICE WHITE, concluded in Part II-B that the regulation's allowance of imports from companies under common control, 19 CFR §§ 133.21(c)(1), (2), is consistent with § 526, and is therefore valid because it is a permissible construction designed to resolve statutory ambiguities. The statutory phrase "owned by" is sufficiently ambiguous to permit parallel importation in the case 2a foreign-parent, domestic-subsidiary context, since the phrase does not reveal which of the affiliated entities can be said to "own" the United States trademark if the domestic subsidiary is wholly owned by its foreign parent. Similarly, the ambiguity contained in the statutory phrase "merchandise of
2. The common control exception is consistent with § 526's purpose and legislative history, which confirm that, if Congress had any intent as to the section's application to affiliates of foreign manufacturers, it was that they ought not enjoy § 526's protection. The major stimulus for the enactment of § 526 was the congressionally perceived inequity of A. Bourjois & Co. v. Katzel, 275 F. 539, which declined to protect a case 1 trademark holder. However, the profound differences between the equities presented in the case 1 and case 2 contexts -- which result
KENNEDY, J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I and II-A, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and WHITE, BLACKMUN, O'CONNOR, and SCALIA, JJ., joined, an opinion of the Court with respect to Part II-C, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and BLACKMUN, O'CONNOR, and SCALIA, JJ., joined, and an opinion with respect to Part II-B, in which WHITE, J., joined. BRENNAN, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which MARSHALL and STEVENS, JJ., joined, and in Part IV of which WHITE, J., joined, post, p. 486 U. S. 295. SCALIA, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and BLACKMUN and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined, post, p. 486 U. S. 318.
The second context (case 2) is a situation in which a domestic firm registers the United States trademark for goods that are manufactured abroad by an affiliated manufacturer. In its most common variation (case 2a), a foreign firm wishes to control distribution of its wares in this country by incorporating a subsidiary here. The subsidiary then registers under its own name (or the manufacturer assigns to the subsidiary's name) a United States trademark that is identical to its parent's foreign trademark. The parallel importation by a third party who buys the goods abroad (or conceivably even by the affiliated foreign manufacturer itself) creates a gray market. Two other variations on this theme occur when an American-based firm establishes abroad a manufacturing subsidiary corporation (case 2b) or its own unincorporated manufacturing division (case 2c) to produce its United States trademarked
19 CFR § 133.21(b) (1987). [Footnote 2]
The District Court upheld the Customs Service regulation, 598 F.Supp. at 853, but the Court of Appeals reversed, Coalition to Preserve the Integrity of American Trademarks v. United States, 252 U.S.App.D.C. 342, 790 F.2d 903 (1986) (hereinafter COPIAT), holding that the Customs Service regulation was an unreasonable administrative interpretation of § 526. We granted certiorari, 479 U.S. 1005 (1986), to resolve a conflict among the Courts of Appeals. Compare Vivitar Corp. v. United States, 761 F.2d 1552, 1557-1560 (CA Fed.1985), aff'g 593 F.Supp. 420 (Ct.Int'l Trade 1984), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1055 (1986); and Olympus Corp. v. United States, 792 F.2d 315, 317-319 (CA2 1986), aff'g 627 F.Supp.
911 (EDNY 1985), cert. pending, No. 86-757, with COPIAT, supra, at 346-355, 790 F.2d at 907-916. In an earlier opinion, we affirmed the Court of Appeals' conclusion that the District Court had jurisdiction, and set the cases for reargument on the merits. 485 U. S. 176 (1988).
Board of Governors, FRS v. Dimension Financial Corp., 474 U. S. 361, 474 U. S. 368 (1986), quoting Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, 467 U. S. 842-843 (1984). See also Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder, 469 U. S. 153, 469 U. S. 164 (1985). In ascertaining the plain meaning of the statute, the court must look to the particular statutory language at issue, as well as the language and design of the statute as a whole. Bethesda Hospital Assn. v. Bowen, 485 U. S. 399, 485 U. S. 403-405 (1988); Offshore Logistics, Inc. v. Tallentire, 477 U. S. 207, 477 U. S. 220-221 (1986). If the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue addressed by the regulation, the question becomes whether the agency
regulation is a permissible construction of the statute. See Chevron, supra, at 467 U. S. 843; Chemical Manufacturers Assn. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 470 U. S. 116, 470 U. S. 125 (1985). If the agency regulation is not in conflict with the plain language of the statute, a reviewing court must give deference to the agency's interpretation of the statute. United States v. Boyle, 469 U. S. 241, 469 U. S. 246, n. 4 (1985).
A further statutory ambiguity contained in the phrase "merchandise of foreign manufacture" suffices to sustain the regulations as they apply to cases 2b and 2c. This ambiguity parallels that of "owned by," which sustained case 2a, because it is possible to interpret "merchandise of foreign manufacture" to mean (1) goods manufactured in a foreign country, (2) goods manufactured by a foreign company, or (3) goods manufactured in a foreign country by a foreign company. Given the imprecision in the statute, the agency is entitled to choose any reasonable definition, and to interpret the statute to say that goods manufactured by a foreign subsidiary
Subsection (c)(3), 19 CFR § 133.21(c)(3) (1987), of the regulation, however, cannot stand. The ambiguous statutory phrases that we have already discussed, "owned by" and
We hold that the Customs Service regulation is consistent with § 526 insofar as it exempts from the importation ban goods that are manufactured abroad by the "same person" who holds the United States trademark, 19 CFR § 133.21(c)(1) (1987), or by a person who is "subject to common . . . control" with the United States trademark holder, § 133.21(c)(2). Because the authorized use exception of the regulation, § 133.21(c)(3), is in conflict with the plain language of the statute, that provision cannot stand. The judgment of the
In the face of this longstanding interpretation of § 526's reach, respondent Coalition to Preserve the Integrity of American Trademarks and its members, most of whom are United States trademark holders or affiliates of United States trademark holders that compete against the gray market, have waged a full-scale battle in legislative, executive,
Also at issue, although the parties and amici give it short shrift, is the third context (case 3), in which the domestic firm authorizes an independent foreign manufacturer to use its
The most blatant hint that Congress did not intend to extend § 526's protection to affiliates of foreign manufacturers (case 2) is the provision's protectionist, almost jingoist, flavor. Its structure bespeaks an intent, characteristic of the times, to protect only domestic interests. A foreign manufacturer that imports its trademarked products into the United States cannot invoke § 526 to prevent third parties from competing in the domestic market by buying the trademarked goods abroad and importing them here: The trademark is not "registered in the Patent and Trademark Office." The same manufacturer cannot protect itself against parallel importation merely by registering its trademark in the United States: It is not "a person domiciled in the United States." Nor can the manufacturer insulate itself by hiring a United States domiciliary to register the trademark: The
The same ambiguity does not, of course, infect cases 2b and 2c. A domestic parent plainly owns the trademark registered in its name, whether or not it also owns a manufacturing subsidiary (case 2b) or division (case 2c) abroad. Nevertheless, § 526 does not unambiguously cover cases 2b and 2c, because it is unclear whether merchandise manufactured abroad by a division or a subsidiary of a domestic firm is "merchandise of foreign manufacture." That phrase could readily be interpreted to mean either "merchandise manufactured in a foreign country" or "merchandise manufactured by a foreigner." Under the former definition, the merchandise manufactured abroad in cases 2b and 2c would fall within § 526's ban. Under the latter definition, however, the coverage is not as clear. Surely a domestic firm that establishes a manufacturing facility abroad (case 2c) is not in any sense a foreigner, and it is at the very least reasonable to view as "American" the foreign subsidiary of a domestic firm.
Section 526 can be fully understood only in the context of the controversial judicial opinion that spawned it. In A. Bourjois & Co. v. Katzel, 275 F. 539 (CA2 1921), rev'd, 260 U. S. 689 (1923), a French producer of "Java" face powder sold to an independent United States company at a considerable premium all its United States business, along with its goodwill and full rights in its United States trademarks. The United States company, Bourjois & Co., registered the newly acquired trademarks under its own name and continued to import the powder from the French producer, selling it to domestic consumers under the French trademark and its own name. All the while, the United States company went to great expense to develop an identity independent from
A comparison of Bourjois to the parties seeking § 526's protection in this litigation aptly illustrates the profound difference between the equities presented by the prototypical gray-market victim and those implicated in case 2. First,
There is no dispute that the perceived inequity in case 1, as exemplified by Katzel, was the "major stimulus" for the enactment of § 526. Coalition to Preserve the Integrity of American Trademarks v. United States, 252 U.S.App.D.C. 342, 348, 790 F.2d 903, 909 (1986) (hereafter COPIAT); see also
Sturges v. Clark D. Pease, Inc., 48 F.2d 1035, 1037 (CA2 1931) (A. Hand, J.); Coty, Inc. v. Le Blume Import Co., 292 F. 264, 268-269 (SDNY 1923) (L. Hand, J.). United States trademark holders, many of which had purchased foreign trademarks from unrelated foreign corporations, demanded an immediate legislative response to Katzel. Congress responded with § 526 of the 1922 Tariff Act, without even waiting for this Court to reverse the Second Circuit (which it ultimately did three months later). The hastily drafted provision was introduced as a "midnight amendmen[t]" on the floor of the Senate, 62 Cong.Rec. 11602 (1922) (remarks of Sen. Moses), and allotted a miserly 10 minutes of debate, in the context of a debate on a comprehensive revision of tariff (not trademark) law. The specific wording of the response was by no means carefully considered, which provides all the more reason to avoid a hypertechnical interpretation that would "make trouble rather than allay it." Fort Smith & Western R. Co. v. Mills, 253 U. S. 206, 253 U. S. 208 (1920); see United States v. Bass, 404 U. S. 336, 404 U. S. 344 (1971).
62 Cong.Rec. 11602 (1922). As initially drafted, § 526 lacked two of its three current limitations. See supra, at 486 U. S. 297. First, it did not limit the import prohibition to goods that were "of foreign manufacture"; that limitation was added later by floor amendment when an opponent pointed out that the provision, as written, would preclude, for example, a United States citizen from importing a domestically manufactured product that had been exported to, and then purchased by him in, Canada. Second, the bill lacked the requirement that the trademark be "owned by a citizen of, or by a corporation or association created or organized within, the United States"; that limitation appeared for the first time, without explanation, in the Conference
The Court of Appeals read an exchange between Senators Lenroot and McCumber to suggest that § 526 could have been understood to go further than necessary merely to overrule Katzel on its facts. [Footnote 2/5] The exchange began with Senator
COPIAT, 252 U.S.App.D.C. at 350, 790 F.2d at 911 (emphasis added). It refers only to the possibility of a foreign company "hav[ing] an agent" (not necessarily "incorporating a subsidiary") in the United States to "register" (not necessarily to "own") the foreign trademark. The question
H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 1223, 67th Cong., 2d Sess., at 158. The Court of Appeals read the statement that § 526 "makes such importation unlawful" as meaning that § 526 would prevent the importation of any merchandise bearing a United
As the Court of Appeals had to concede, COPIAT, supra, at 349, 790 F.2d at 910, its own reading imputed to Congress an intent to effect a sweeping transformation of the then-prevailing trademark doctrine. Congress, the argument goes, intended to reject squarely the Second Circuit's "universality theory" that a trademark was a device to protect the public against fraud by properly identifying the product's manufacturer, not a device to protect the trademark owner against competing sales of its own goods. See supra, at 486 U. S. 301. When Congress intends to effect so radical a departure from prevailing legal doctrine, it ordinarily acknowledges as much, and does so in more than a single cryptic comment in a conference report. Moreover, Congress typically would not sneak such a sweeping doctrinal change into a
The conclusion that the common control exception is consistent with § 526 is further buttressed by the deference owed to an agency interpretation that represents a longstanding agency position. See Zenith Radio Corp. v. United States,
Page 486 U. S. 310
437 U. S. 443, 437 U. S. 450 (1978); NLRB v. Bell Aerospace Co., 416 U. S. 267, 416 U. S. 275 (1974). While the precise language of the importation bar has varied over the years, Treasury has for 50 years adhered to the basic premise of the common control exception -- that § 526 does not require exclusion of all gray-market goods.
Until 1936, Treasury's regulations merely tracked the language of § 526, see Cust.Reg.1923, art. 476; Cust.Reg.1931, arts. 517(a), 518, but respondents point to no evidence that the Customs Service had any practice of excluding goods bearing trademarks registered by affiliates of foreign corporations. That year, Treasury explicitly adopted for the first time a "same-company" exception, which barred foreign manufactured goods bearing United States trademarks except if the foreign and domestic trademarks "are owned by the same person, partnership, association, or corporation." See T.D. 48537, 70 Treas.Dec. 336-337 (1936) (amending art. 518(b)). Contrary to the assertion of the Court of Appeals, COPIAT, 252 U.S.App.D.C. at 353, and n. 14, 790 F.2d at 914, and n. 14, Treasury's preamble specifically invoked its authority under §§ 526 and 624 of the 1930 Tariff Act (as well as § 27 of the Trade-Mark Act of 1905) in introducing the same-company exception. Treasury adhered to an identical same-company formulation of the exception upon reissuing the regulation in 1937, see Cust.Reg.1937, arts. 536(a), 537; in 1943, see 19 CFR § 11.14(b) (1943); and in 1947, see 19 CFR § 11.14(b) (1947), each time citing specifically § 526 as partial authority for the interpretation. For 17 years thereafter, the regulation remained unchanged, and the Customs Service permitted parallel importation so long as the manufacturer and the United States trademark holder were affiliated, including situations where the holder was the manufacturer's subsidiary. See In re Georg Jensen Inc., T.D. 52711, 86 Treas.Dec. 92 (1951); Derenberg, The Impact of the Antitrust Laws on Trade-Marks in Foreign Commerce, 27 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 414, 429 (1952).
That exception remained in place until 1959, when (for reasons not relevant here) Treasury deleted the related-company formulation of the exception and returned to the same-company formulation. Significantly, however, Treasury and the Customs Service continued to apply the provision as if the related-company language had still been there, permitting importation of gray-market goods where "the foreign producer is the parent or subsidiary of the American [trademark] owner or the firms are under a common control." T.D. 69-12(2), 3 Cust.Bull. 17 (1969); see also Letter from Deputy Customs Commissioner Flinn to Felix Levitan (Mar. 15, 1963), App. 63 (articulating Customs Service's "position
Unlike the variations of corporate affiliation in case 2, see supra at 486 U. S. 299, the ambiguity in § 526, admittedly, is not immediately apparent in case 3. In that situation, the casual reader of the statute might suppose that the domestic firm still "own[s]" its trademark. Any such supposition as to the meaning of "owned by," however, bespeaks stolid anachronism, not solid analysis. It follows only from an understanding of trademark law that established itself long after the 1922 enactment and 1930 reenactment of § 526. Cf. Potomac Electric Power Co. v. Director, OWCP, 449 U. S. 268, 449 U. S. 280
Nor was it at all obvious then that a trademark owner could authorize the use of its trademark in one geographic area by selling it along with business and goodwill, while retaining ownership of the trademark in another geographic area. There were, as JUSTICE SCALIA points out, isolated suggestions that a foreign firm could validly assign to another the exclusive right to distribute the assignor's goods here under the foreign trademark. See post at 486 U. S. 326. The cases, however, were rife with suggestions to the contrary. [Footnote 2/7] And
we have found no contemporaneous case even suggesting that a domestic firm could retain ownership of a trademark after attempting to assign to another the right to use the trademark on goods that the other manufactured abroad. Cf. Scandinavia Belting Co. v. Asbestos & Rubber Works of America, Inc., 257 F. 937, 956 (CA2 1919) (raising similar issue whether assignee of right to use trademark in the United States might use trademark on products not produced by the foreign manufacturer, but concluding "[t]hat question is not here and is not decided"). As one commentator writing as late as 1932 observed:
Not until the 1930's did a trend develop approving of trademark licensing -- so long as the licensor controlled the quality of the licensee's products -- on the theory that a trademark might also serve the function of identifying product quality for consumers. 1 McCarthy, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, at 827-829; see Grismore, 30 Mich.L.Rev. at 499.
JUSTICE SCALIA's assertion that the foregoing analysis of case 3 is not based on the "resolution of textual 'ambiguity,"' post at 486 U. S. 323, depends on the proposition that an ancient statute is not ambiguous -- and judges can never inform their interpretation with reference to legislative purpose -- merely because the scope of its language has, by some fortuitous development, expanded to embrace situations that its drafters never anticipated. The proposition is unexceptionable where the post-enactment development does not implicate the
Since I believe that the application of § 526 to case 3 is ambiguous, the sole remaining question is whether Treasury's decision to exclude case 3 from § 526's prohibition is entitled to deference. The same considerations that lead me to uphold Treasury's treatment of the case 2 variations compel the same conclusion here. In the first place, the equities in case 3, as in case 2, differ significantly from the equities that motivated Congress to protect the prototypical gray-market victim (case l) that purchases its trademark rights at arm's length from an independent manufacturer. While the prototypical gray-market victim stands to lose the full benefit of its bargain because of gray-market interference, the United States trademark holder that develops identical rights and
Finally, Treasury has, at least since 1951, declined to protect trademark holders who authorize the use of their trademarks abroad. Almost as soon as the Lanham Trade-Mark Act codified the quality theory, enabling trademark holders to license the use of their trademarks without thereby relinquishing ownership, see supra, at 486 U. S. 311, the Customs Service took the position that § 526's protection would be unavailable to domestic firms that authorized independent foreign firms to use their trademarks. See Letter from Customs Commissioner Dow to Sen. Douglas (Mar. 23, 1951), App. 52, 53 ("[A] foreign subsidiary or licensee of the United States trademark is considered to stand in the same shoes as such trademark owner") (emphasis added). See also T.D. 69-12(2), 3 Cust.Bull. at 17. Particularly in light of that longstanding agency interpretation, I would uphold the authorized use exception as reasonable.
Thus, the regulation excludes from § 526(a)'s import prohibition products bearing a domestic trademark that have been manufactured abroad by the trademark owner (case 2c), or by the trademark owner's subsidiary (case 2b). But the statutory requirement that the trademark be "owned by" a
In the particular context of the present statute, however, the majority's suggested interpretation is not merely unusual, but inconceivable, since it would have the effect of eliminating § 526(a)'s protection for some trademark holders in case 1 -- which contains what the Court describes as the "prototypical"
The majority does not insist that this queer reading is the best interpretation of "of foreign manufacture," but only that the Customs Service has adopted this construction of the statute as the basis for its regulation. That will come as a surprise to the Customs Service. The Government's petition for writ of certiorari in this very case states that § 526(a) deals not with goods manufactured by foreigners, but rather with "goods manufactured abroad," "genuine foreign-made goods," "[g]enuine goods manufactured abroad," "goods produced abroad." Pet. for Cert. in No. 86-625, p. 3. As far as I can discern, that accords with the absolutely uniform Customs Service interpretation. For example, the Customs
If it were, as JUSTICE KENNEDY believes, "the current interpretation of the regulations we are sustaining," ante at 486 U. S. 293, n. 4, one would expect there to be in place some mechanism that enables the Customs Service to identify goods that are not only manufactured abroad but also (as the majority's
I find it extraordinary for this Court, on the theory of deferring to an agency's judgment, to burden that agency with
There may be an anachronism here, but if so, it is the statute itself -- which Congress has chosen not to update -- and not the faithful reading of it to cover what it covers. JUSTICE BRENNAN characterizes his view as the resolution of textual "ambiguity," but it has nothing to do with that. A 19th-century statute criminalizing the theft of goods is not ambiguous in its application to the theft of microwave ovens simply because the legislators enacting it "were unlikely to have contemplated" those appliances; and a 1922 (or 1930) statute covering a "corporation . . . organized within, the United States" unambiguously includes a United States corporation that has licensed its trademark abroad, whether or not a United States corporation with that characteristic existed
at the time. [Footnote 3/2] JUSTICE BRENNAN is asserting that we have the power -- indeed, the obligation, lest we commit "stolid anachronism" -- to decline to apply a statute to a situation that its language concededly covers, not on the ground that the enacting Congress actually intended but failed to express such an exception, nor even on the ground that failure to infer such an exception produces an absurd result, but on the ground that, if the enacting Congress had foreseen modern circumstances, it would have adopted such an exception, since otherwise the effect of the law would extend beyond its originally contemplated purpose. I confess never to have
JUSTICE BRENNAN asserts that legislators in 1922 or 1930 were unlikely to have contemplated that a trademark owner could assign his trademark unless he simultaneously conveyed the goodwill and business associated with the mark.
Ante at 486 U. S. 313-314. But the prohibition on assigning a trademark apart from its associated goodwill has not been eliminated. See 15 U.S.C. § 1060. And no more in 1922 than today did it preclude assignment of the trademark and goodwill on a region-by-region basis. By 1920, it was firmly established that unrelated businesses could own and use an identical trademark so long as the uses were confined to different and distinct regions. See United Drug Co. v. Theodore Rectanus Co., 248 U. S. 90, 248 U. S. 100-101 (1918); Hanover Star Milling Co. v. Metcalf, 240 U. S. 403, 240 U. S. 415 (1916). As a consequence, a trademark holder doing business in two distinct territories was free to assign the business, goodwill, and rights to the trademark in one of the regions. See, e.g., Scandinavia Belting Co. v. Asbestos & Rubber Works of America, Inc., 257 F. 937, 953-956 (CA2 1919); Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. v. Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Co., 54 Ont.L.Rep. 537, 546, 550 (1923); see also Apollinaris Co. v. Scherer, 27 F. 18, 19-20 (CC SDNY 1886) (dicta); cf. Saxlehner v. Eisner & Mendelson Co., 179 U. S. 19 (1900) (a trademark owner does not abandon his trademark if he continues to use it domestically while granting another party the exclusive right to sell the product in certain foreign countries). [Footnote 3/3] Similarly, a firm that used its trademark in one
business, say manufacturing cola syrup, could transfer rights to use the trademark in another business, such as bottling cola-flavored soda. See Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Coca-Cola Co., 269 F. 796, 806-808 (DC Del.1920). It was also well established that different parties using an identical trademark in different regions, or for different purposes, could enter into a consent agreement authorizing each party to continue the nonconflicting uses. See Waukesha Hygeia Mineral Springs Co. v. Hygeia Sparkling Distilled Water Co., 63 F. 438, 441 (CA7 1894). JUSTICE BRENNAN correctly notes that trademark law now recognizes, as it had only begun to recognize in 1930, that a trademark may be licensed for use by different firms in the same or overlapping regions, ante at 486 U. S. 314-315. That change in the law, however, plays almost no part in the application of § 526(a). Since international trademark licensing is interregional, a statute that applies only to imported goods is hardly affected by a change in trademark law concerning intraregional licensing. Finally, there is direct proof that Congress appreciated the possibility of territorial assignment of trademarks. JUSTICE BRENNAN acknowledges that the 1922 Congress was well aware of, and indeed was motivated by, the case of A. Bourjois & Co. v. Katzel, 275 F. 539 (CA2 1921), which presented a textbook example of an assignment of the right to use a trademark in a distinct market. Although Congress understood that a United States trademark owner could authorize the use of its mark abroad, Congress nonetheless chose not to create an exception to § 526(a) for that situation.
I of course agree that, to the extent § 526(a) is ambiguous, we need only determine whether the Customs Service's interpretation of the statute is reasonable, See Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, 467 U. S. 842-843 (1984). But we owe no deference to a construction that is contrary to the interpretation of the agency. I would therefore hold invalid, in addition to subsection (c)(3) of the regulation, subsections (c)(1) and (c)(2).
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