What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Intervenors who participated as parties at the courts of appeals should be counted as either appellants or respondents when it can be determined whose position they supported. For example, if there were two plaintiffs who lost in district court, appealed, and were joined by four intervenors who also asked the court of appeals to reverse the district court, the number of appellants should be coded as six.
In some cases there is some confusion over who should be listed as the appellant and who as the respondent. This confusion is primarily the result of the presence of multiple docket numbers consolidated into a single appeal that is disposed of by a single opinion. Most frequently, this occurs when there are cross appeals and/or when one litigant sued (or was sued by) multiple litigants that were originally filed in district court as separate actions. The coding rule followed in such cases should be to go strictly by the designation provided in the title of the case. The first person listed in the title as the appellant should be coded as the appellant even if they subsequently appeared in a second docket number as the respondent and regardless of who was characterized as the appellant in the opinion.
To clarify the coding conventions, consider the following hypothetical case in which the US Justice Department sues a labor union to strike down a racially discriminatory seniority system and the corporation (siding with the position of its union) simultaneously sues the government to get an injunction to block enforcement of the relevant civil rights law. From a district court decision that consolidated the two suits and declared the seniority system illegal but refused to impose financial penalties on the union, the corporation appeals and the government and union file cross appeals from the decision in the suit brought by the government. Assume the case was listed in the Federal Reporter as follows:
United States of America,
Plaintiff, Appellant
v
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendant, Appellee.
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendants, Cross-appellants
v
United States of America.
Widgets, Inc. & Susan Kuersten Sheehan, President & Chairman
of the Board
Plaintiff, Appellants,
v
United States of America,
Defendant, Appellee.
This case should be coded as follows:Appellant = United States, Respondents = International Brotherhood of Widget Workers Widgets, Inc., Total number of appellants = 1, Number of appellants that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officials" = 1, Total number of respondents = 3, Number of respondents that fall into the category "private business and its executives" = 2, Number of respondents that fall into the category "groups and associations" = 1.
Note that if an individual is listed by name, but their appearance in the case is as a government official, then they should be counted as a government rather than as a private person. For example, in the case "Billy Jones & Alfredo Ruiz v Joe Smith" where Smith is a state prisoner who brought a civil rights suit against two of the wardens in the prison (Jones & Ruiz), the following values should be coded: number of appellants that fall into the category "natural persons" =0 and number that fall into the category "state governments, their agencies, and officials" =2. A similar logic should be applied to businesses and associations. Officers of a company or association whose role in the case is as a representative of their company or association should be coded as being a business or association rather than as a natural person. However, employees of a business or a government who are suing their employer should be coded as natural persons. Likewise, employees who are charged with criminal conduct for action that was contrary to the company policies should be considered natural persons.
If the title of a case listed a corporation by name and then listed the names of two individuals that the opinion indicated were top officers of the same corporation as the appellants, then the number of appellants should be coded as three and all three were coded as a business (with the identical detailed code). Similar logic should be applied when government officials or officers of an association were listed by name.
Your specific task is to determine the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "private business and its executives". If the total number cannot be determined (e.g., if the appellant is listed as "Smith, et. al." and the opinion does not specify who is included in the "et.al."), then answer 99.

Opinion:
HYGRADE FOOD PRODUCTS CORPORATION v. H. D. LEE MERCANTILE CO. et al.
No. 297.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.
Jan. 2, 1931.
John S. Dean, of Topeka, Kan. (John S. Dean, Jr., and Frazor T. Edmondson, both of Topeka, Kan., and Harold H. Corbin and Edward J. Bennett, both of New York City, on the brief), for appellant.
Edwin C. Meservey and Charles M. Blaekmar, both of Kansas City, Mo. (Meservey, Michaels, Blaekmar, Newkirk & Eager, of Kansas City, Mo., on the brief), for appellees.
Before LEWIS, PHILLIPS, and Mc-DERMOTT, Circuit Judges.
PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge.
Hygrade Food Products Corporation brought this action against the H. D. Lee Mercantile Company, a corporation, S. V. Scott, John Lynn, Alexander Noll, Wm. Smith and Robert P. Cook to enjoin them from using the trade name “High Grade Pood Stores” in connection with the manufacture, sale and distribution of food products, and for an accounting for damages and profits.
The amended complaint alleged: That the Hygrade Provision Company, Inc., was incorporated in 1914 under the laws of New York; that it engaged in the manufacture, sale and distribution of food products from that date until December, 1927; that on May 17, 1921, the Provision Company duly registered the trade-mark Hygrade in the United States patent office; that plaintiff was incorporated in December, 1927, as the successor of the Provision Company and acquired all of that company’s assets, including the right to the use of the trade name and trademark Hygrade; that from 1914 on down to the date of the commencement of this suit plaintiff and its predecessor had “used the word Hygrade upon their food products,” had spent many thousands of dollars in advertising such trade name in connection with food products, and had sold all classes of food products under such name throughout the United States; that by reason thereof the trade-mark Hygrade had acquired, among dealers and the public generally throughout the United States, “a meaning indicating that food products bearing such name are the products of the plaintiff”; that about June 1, 1929, the Mercantile Company induced a number of dealers in food products, including the defendants other than such Mercantile Company, in and about the cities of Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City and Independence, Missouri, to enter into agreements whereby the Mercantile Company purported to grant to such dealers the right to use, and such dealers agreed to use the name “High Grade Food Stores” in connection with the sales of food products to the public; that the defendants are so using the name “High Grade Food Stores” and will continue so to do unless restrained; that the use of the trade-name “High Grade Food Stores” by the defendants in the sale of their food products has caused and will cause dealers and the public generally to believe that defendants’ food products are the products of the plaintiff, and to purchase defendants’ .products as and for the products of the plaintiff; that such alleged wrongful acts have injured the g'ood will and trade-mark of the plaintiff in an amount in excess of $3,000 and that the defendants have realized profits from the use of such trade name in excess of that amount.
By motion to dismiss, the defendants challenged' the sufficiency of the bill to state a cause of action. The trial court sustained this motion and entered a decree dismissing the bill. Plaintiff has appealed.
It is well séttled that “a name which is merely descriptive of the ingredients, qualities or characteristics of an article of trade cannot be appropriated as a trade-mark and the exclusive use of it afforded legal protection.” Warner & Co. v. Lilly & Co., 265 U. S. 526, 528, 44 S. Ct. 615, 616, 68 L. Ed. 1161; Delaware & H. Canal Co. v. Clark, 13 Wall. 311, 323, 327, 20 L. Ed. 581; Standard Paint Co. v. Trinidad Asphalt Co., 220 U. S. 446, 453, 31 S. Ct. 456, 55 L. Ed. 536.
Such words, however, by long use in connection with the goods of a particular trade may come to be understood by the public to mean the goods of that particular trader and thus acquire what is commonly called a secondary meaning. Although a word may have acquired a secondary meaning, it still belongs to the public in its primary descriptive sense and any person may use it, provided he does so in such a way as not to convey the secondary-meaning and deceive the purchasing public.
Therefore, where a word has acquired such secondary meaning, a person, notwithstanding his general right to use such word because it is descriptive, when he offers his goods to that part of the public to whom such word has come to mean the products of another, must accompany the word with such distinguishing marks that a buyer exercising ordinary prudence will not be deceived. Richmond Remedies Co. v. Dr. Miles Medical Co. (C. C. A. 8) 16 F.(2d) 598, 602; Merriam Co. v. Saalfield (C. C. A. 6) 198 F. 369, 373; Standard Paint Co. v. Rubberoid Roofing Co. (C. C. A. 7) 224 F. 695; Barton v. Rex-Oil Co. (C. C. A. 3) 2 F.(2d) 402, 40 A. L. R. 424; Id. (C. C. A.) 29 F.(2d) 474; Photoplay Pub. Co. v. La Verne Pub. Co. (C. C. A. 3) 269 F. 730; Elgin Nat. Watch Co. v. Illinois Watch Case Co., 179 U. S. 665, 674, 21 S. Ct. 270, 45 L. Ed. 365.
In order to afford grounds of relief for unfair competition, the simulation must be one which is likely to deceive the common buyer or a buyer exercising ordinary prudence. Queen-Mfg. Co. v. Isaac Ginsberg & Bros. (C. C. A. 8) 25 F.(2d) 284, 288; Leschen & Sons Rope Co. v. Fuller (C. C. A. 8) 218 F. 786, 789; Wrisley Co. v. Iowa Soap Co. (C. C. A. 8) 122 F. 796; Federal Trade Com. v. Balme (C. C. A. 2) 23 F.(2d) 615, 620; Notaseme Hosiery Co. v. Straus (C. C. A. 2) 201 F. 99, 100.
The bill alleged that the trade-mark Hygrade, when used in connection with the sale of food products, has acquired a secondary meaning and, to the purchasing public, it has come to mean the particular food products manufactured and sold by the plaintiff. Upon motion to dismiss, these allegations must be accepted as true. The question remains: Has the plaintiff sufficiently alleged a simulation thereof by defendants which would deceive the common buyer or purchaser who exercises ordinary care in buying?
The bill alleged that the plaintiff had advertised and sold its goods under the trademark of Hygrade and had marked its food products with such trade-mark. If is not alleged that the defendants have marked their goods with a trade-mark or trade name similar to that of the plaintiff, but, rather, that the defendants have used the trade name “High Grade Food Stores” upon their stores or places of business. While it is alleged, in the nature of a conclusion, that such use of the trade name “High Grade Food Stores” is calculated to and will mislead the common buyer, the other facts alleged clearly show that this allegation is not well founded in fact. If the plaintiff has marked its goods with its trade-mark Hygrade and sold such goods as such, the purchasing public would naturally come to look for that trade-mark upon the goods or package. The mere use of the phrase “High Grade Food Stores” on a place of business, without marking the goods and packages offered for sale by a trade-mark similar to that of plaintiff, would not be calculated to deceive a person exercising ordinary prudence in the purchasing of food products.
Furthermore, while the trade-mark used by the plaintiff and the trade name and trade-mark used by the defendants (which are set out in the margin) both employ the words “high grade,” one spelled Hygrade and the other High Grade, yet they are so wholly dissimilar it is inconceivable that a person exercising ordinary care in purchasing the products offered by the defendants would be deceived into believing such goods were the products of the plaintiff.
For the reasons stated, we conclude tha the bill failed to state a cause of action.
The decree is affirmed.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "private business and its executives"? Answer with a number.

Choices:

Answer: 1