Opinion ID: 518087
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the contestants reach federal court

Text: 16 In 1987, the exposition was held on Saturday April 18 and the race on Monday April 20. On April 1, 1987, BAA and Image filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts alleging that defendants' 1986 and 1987 shirts, with the logos described above, infringed BAA's marks. The complaint alleged confusion in violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1114, and a similar provision in Massachusetts law, Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 110B, Sec. 11. The complaint also included additional state law counts for dilution, Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 110B, Sec. 12, sale of counterfeits and imitations, Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 110B, Sec. 13, and unauthorized use of a name, Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 214, Sec. 3A. Along with the complaint, plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, seeking to stop the manufacture and sale of any article bearing the name Boston Marathon or any similar name. 17 On April 8, 1987, the district court held a hearing at which it consolidated the preliminary injunction hearing with a trial on the merits; the defendants were deemed to have made a general denial. Prior to the trial, the parties agreed to certain facts including BAA's registration of its marks in 1983 and 1985. Also prior to trial, several affidavits were filed with the court. 18 Three days of trial were held on April 13, 14, and 15. During the trial, the plaintiffs presented most of their case. Lawrence, president of plaintiff Image, testified to instances in which people bought defendants' shirts at the 1986 exposition thinking they were plaintiffs'. This testimony was admitted over objection. On April 16, because the exposition was only two days away and the parties were concerned about whether the defendants could sell their shirts at the exposition, the district court received offers of proof as to the remaining witnesses and heard oral argument on the motion for a preliminary injunction. 19 In a bench opinion the court found that plaintiffs would probably succeed in showing that: 1. BAA's mark was valid and effective at all relevant times; 2. the name Boston Marathon when used on products would cause the average person to infer sponsorship by somebody, even if the average person did not realize that BAA was the sponsor; 3. defendants' designs referred to the Boston Marathon; 4. plaintiffs' shirts were of a higher quality than defendants'; and 5. people who attend the exposition, given their interest in running, would infer sponsorship by BAA of Beau Tease's shirts sold at the exposition. The court also found that sale of the same shirts in any other milieu, such as along the race course, would not cause an average person to infer sponsorship by BAA. Based on these findings, the court did not enjoin Sullivan in any way, but did preliminarily enjoin Beau Tease from selling shirts directly at the exposition or marketing to anyone who it knew would sell Beau Tease's 1987 shirts at the exposition. 20 On April 17, BAA appealed and moved for an injunction in this court. That same day, we denied the injunction because of a lack of irreparable harm. We noted that trademark infringement ordinarily causes intangible injuries which make injunctive relief appropriate. We felt, however, that such relief was not suitable in this case because of the annual and discrete nature of the harm, the availability of a damages remedy and the late date at which plaintiffs' instituted suit in federal court. On April 28, the appeal was dismissed on motion by the plaintiffs. 21 When the case returned to district court, the parties submitted cross-motions for summary judgment. The motions were bolstered by affidavits--some had been filed pretrial and some filed with the motions--and by references to the trial materials. Plaintiff Image's affidavit, executed by Lawrence, included instances of people buying defendants' 1987 shirts believing them to be plaintiffs'. Lawrence Newman, press liaison for BAA, submitted along with a second affidavit a series of newspaper articles and summaries of the articles, referring to the Boston Marathon and BAA for every tenth year from 1897 to 1967 and for every year from 1972 to 1983 and for 1986 and 1987. On July 24, plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint to include a declaratory judgment claim with respect to their rights in the name Boston Marathon. The motion also asked that their claim be broadened to include an injunction against defendants' design, already described, with any year on it. The district court allowed this motion on August 17, 1987. 22 On February 4, 1988, plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint further by including defendants' 1988 shirts and a design: Boston 23 [picture of runner/s] 19xx 24 Plaintiffs also sought a preliminary injunction. On March 7, the district court rendered its decision. On March 11, the district court found the preliminary injunction request moot in light of its March 7 decision. It stated that it had considered the plaintiffs' motion relative to the 1988 shirts and that the March 7 opinion applied to those shirts as well. 25 The district court's March 7 decision found that BAA's marks were its most valuable asset and were at all relevant times valid and enforceable. It found that an average person would infer sponsorship by someone of a product carrying the logo Boston Marathon, and that defendants' logos referred to the marathon. The court stated that there was a dispute whether the public would associate BAA with the Boston Marathon but that this dispute was not material. It held that the public would not infer that the defendants' logos were sponsored by BAA. The court explicitly disregarded Lawrence's affidavit evidence of confusion because it was hearsay and the court found no other evidence that any disinterested person was confused as to the source of defendants' shirts. The court also held that BAA's rights did not extend beyond the use of its exact service marks. The court ruled as a matter of law that there was no confusion between the defendants' and plaintiffs' shirts. The court concluded its opinion: More precisely, this Court rules that the specific T-shirt logo challenged in this action does not, as a matter of law, give rise to any colorable confusion with products authorized by the BAA as part of its sponsorship of the particular road race in question. Judgment for the defendants was entered and the preliminary injunction was dissolved. This appeal followed.