Opinion ID: 583588
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: New York Common Law of Unfair Competition

Text: 49 As we have just explained, under the New York common law of unfair competition, a plaintiff need not establish secondary meaning in order to prevent a competitor from using a confusingly similar trade dress where the competitor is engaged in palming off, actual deception, appropriation of the plaintiff's property, or deliberate copying of a trade dress. 50 The district court noted that [Idea Group] introduced evidence that it selected its trade dress before it knew of Laureyssens, which would suggest that the choice was not based on any improper motive. 768 F.Supp. at 1050. However, the district court granted the preliminary injunction on New York common law of unfair competition grounds because Idea Group did not establish exactly when its trade dress was adopted, thereby raising a serious question regarding Idea Group's good faith. 51 The hearing testimony and affidavit of Idea Group's president reveal that Idea Group's SNAFOOZ packaging was developed between June 1989 and February 1990, prior to the 1990 Toy Fair. The first design concepts were submitted sometime during those months to Idea Group by a New York graphic design firm which they hired, one of which was SNAFOOZ and the other, TEEZER. The SNAFOOZ design submitted at that time was virtually identical to the packaging presented by Idea Group at the 1990 Toy Fair. Although there is no evidence pinpointing exactly when Idea Group finalized the trade dress for the 1990 Toy Fair, we find nothing in the record which indicates that Idea Group or the graphic design firm was aware of the HAPPY CUBE trade dress prior to creating or settling on a design, or that they intentionally copied the HAPPY CUBE trade dress. 52 Without evidence sufficient to raise a serious question of bad faith on the part of Idea Group, we reverse the district court's decision to grant a preliminary injunction against Idea Group based on New York's common law of unfair competition.