Opinion ID: 518087
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the start in state court

Text: 6 We have taken the facts mainly from the district court opinions. BAA is a charitable organization whose principal activity has been conducting the Boston Marathon since it was first run in 1897. The race is run annually from Hopkinton to Boston on Patriots' Day, the third Monday in April. In recent years, a day or two prior to the race an exposition has been put on by Conventures, Inc. under BAA's sponsorship. At the exposition, various businesses set up booths and sell shirts, running apparel, and sports items. The registered runners also pick up their numbers and official materials from the BAA booth. 7 Defendant Sullivan, a resident of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, retails wearing apparel under the name Good Life at a store in Hopkinton. Defendant Beau Tease, Inc. is a Massachusetts corporation doing business in Cambridge. It imprints and distributes merchandise, including shirts, to the trade. 8 In an effort to defray the costs of the race, BAA began an active campaign to market its name via licensing agreements. It registered the names Boston Marathon and BAA Marathon and its unicorn logo in Massachusetts in 1983 and Boston Marathon in the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1985. 9 As early as 1978, the defendants were imprinting and selling shirts with the name Boston Marathon and various other terms including the year on them. In 1984, defendant Sullivan negotiated an agreement under which Beau Tease sold to BAA a large quantity of shirts which BAA gave away to the athletes and volunteers during the 1985 race. In 1986, Image, through its President, Mickey Lawrence, entered into an exclusive license with BAA for the use of BAA's service marks on wearing apparel including shirts. Starting in 1986, Image and BAA gave notice to imprinters, wholesalers, and retailers that Image was the exclusive licensee of the BAA and that any unauthorized use on merchandise of the name Boston Marathon, or a similar name or a colorable imitation thereof, would violate the exclusive rights of BAA and its licensee. 10 By March of 1986, Beau Tease was imprinting and Sullivan was selling in the Boston area shirts imprinted as follows: 1986 Marathon 11 [picture of runners] Hopkinton-Boston 12 BAA brought suit in Massachusetts Superior Court against the current defendants, and others, alleging that the above design infringed upon its marks. The superior court denied its request for a preliminary injunction, Boston Athletic Association v. Graphtex, Inc., Suffolk Superior Court No. 82365, slip op. (April 11, 1986); the denial was affirmed by a single justice of the Massachusetts Court of Appeals, No. A.C.-86-0169-CV (April 18, 1986) (Fine, J.). The action was discontinued without prejudice; the parties reserved their right to assert their positions in any future action. 13 In late 1986 and early 1987, Beau Tease began to imprint and Sullivan began to retail shirts and other apparel imprinted as follows: 1987 Marathon 14 [picture of runners] Hopkinton-Boston 15 The 1987 shirts and the 1986 shirts were of poorer quality than plaintiffs' both as to manufacture and materials. The defendants were planning to sell their shirts and other items at the exposition.