Opinion ID: 457170
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lanham Act Cause of Action

Text: 60 Cable's federal nonpatent count is an action brought under the Lanham Act Sec. 43(a), 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1125(a) (1982). In essence, it is charged that the commercial configuration of the Cable night light has come to designate origin, and thus that Genmark's use of an allegedly similar configuration in its own commercial product constitutes a prohibited false designation of origin. 61 Apart from what must be shown regarding an alleged copy in order to impose liability for copying, protection under the Lanham Act of the physical details and design of a product may be available if such features both (1) have acquired secondary meaning and (2) are nonfunctional. Vuitton Et Fils S.A. v. J. Young Enterprises, Inc., 644 F.2d 769, 772, 210 USPQ 351, 353-54 (9th Cir.1981). 62 The district court concluded that Cable was not entitled to protection as a matter of law, based on the second requirement, by concluding that the functionality of the Cable night light design was beyond dispute. To so conclude, it focused on the positions of Cable before the United States Patent and Trademark Office in obtaining allowance of the Schwartz utility patent and before the district court in opposing Genmark's motion for summary judgment on the patent count of this case. The argument Cable made was described as to the effect that the night light's configuration was utilitarian--indeed, patentably so, providing special advantages in compactness, efficient bulb change, and light diffusion. 586 F.Supp. at 1508, 223 USPQ at 293. The district court thus held that Cable was bound by the argument it made on behalf of the nonobviousness of claims in a patent, 19 when the issue under consideration was the functionality of the actual design of a commercial device. In view of the considerations discussed below, the two can hardly be presumed to be even similar questions. 63 Nonobviousness is a question of law fully reviewable on appeal. Gardner v. TEC Systems, Inc., 725 F.2d 1338, 1344, 220 USPQ 777, 782 (Fed.Cir.), cert denied, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 116, 83 L.Ed.2d 60, 225 USPQ 232 (1984). On the other hand, functionality in the context of this case is a question of a highly factual nature. See Vuitton, 644 F.2d at 775, 210 USPQ at 356. When the district court ruled on the issue of functionality, it improperly deprived Cable of the right to have a fact-finding tribunal examine the actual evidence which has bearing on the functionality question. 64 Below it was not a matter of examining the evidence proffered and concluding that there existed no genuine issue as to any material fact, as required for a grant of summary judgment. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). That point in analysis was never reached, because rather than looking to the actual evidence on nonfunctionality, the district court chose to utilize arguments made in relation to the meaning of invalid patent claims as admissions against interest about the factual nature of a product design. It did this, as far as we can determine, without analytically verifying the soundness for doing so. The court appears not to have considered whether the meaning of those claims was so unavoidably identical to the details of the product design ultimately marketed as to warrant the desirability or suitability of the use of statements about the former as reliable or legally binding admissions about the latter. 65 In evaluating arguments made on behalf of the right to obtain or retain a patent, the proper object of scrutiny is the meaning of patent claims when compared to the teachings of the prior art. On the other hand, in assessing the right to protection from unfair product copying, the proper object of attention is the actual marketplace design of and marketing practices for an allegedly copied product when compared to those of the alleged copy. The aim of the patent system is to enhance the incentive for useful innovation; the aim of the Lanham Act, section 43(a), even in the context of product simulation, is to protect a trader's established identity. See International Order of Job's Daughters v. Lindeburg & Co., 633 F.2d 912, 918-19, 208 USPQ 718, 724-25 (9th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 941, 101 S.Ct. 3086, 69 L.Ed.2d 956 (1981) (to protect consumers against deceptive designations of the origin of goods and, conversely, to enable producers to differentiate their products from those of others). 66 In resolving the question of product design functionality for purposes of the Lanham Act, section 43(a), the fact finder is to consider the appearance of the products in issue. Reference to utility patent claims that are, or have been, asserted to read on either product, or to the appearance of the device depicted in figures included in the patent specification supporting such claims, must be done with caution. Cf. Best Lock Corp. v. Schlage Lock Co., 413 F.2d 1195, 1199, 162 USPQ 552, 556, 56 C.C.P.A. 1472, 1477-78 (1969) (cautioning that a utility patent is only 'some evidence' as to functionality in its explanation of statements in In re Shenango Ceramics, Inc., 362 F.2d 287, 292, 150 USPQ 115, 120, 53 C.C.P.A. 1268, 1274 (1966)). See also In re Hollaender Manufacturing Co., 511 F.2d 1186, 1188, 185 USPQ 101, 102 (CCPA 1975); In re Honeywell, Inc., 497 F.2d 1344, 1348, 181 USPQ 821, 824 (CCPA 1974). Claims may be capable of reading on many devices of strikingly different configuration. Thus, even the fact that the claims read on two commercial devices in the marketplace is not support in itself for a finding that one is a copy of the other or confusingly similar thereto for section 43(a) purposes. A manufacturer may choose in its commercial embodiment of a patented device to less than faithfully replicate the exemplary depiction of a claimed embodiment shown in the figures of the patent. Hence, for purposes of evaluating the existence or impact of product copying, the relevance of patent figures depends on the extent to which their appearance is replicated in the actual marketplace product of the patentee. We have been shown no Ninth Circuit precedent to the contrary. 67 Concluding that the grant of summary judgment as to Cable's Lanham Act count was improper, we vacate that portion of the case and remand it for further proceedings consistent with the above discussions. To guide its analysis regarding functionality, the district court is to utilize the ample case law available from the Ninth Circuit.