Opinion ID: 491735
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: May 12, 1987, Orders

Text: 10 On October 28, 1986, Parfums moved for modification or clarification of the district court's June 30 order, requesting that the court approve a snipe, or disclaimer sticker, which would bear the words Designer Imposters, Designer Quality Fragrances, Not Designer Prices, and Parfums de Coeur. Parfums proposed that the June 30 order be modified to allow the body spray container to be sold provided this sticker was securely and prominently affixed to the container body. On November 17, 1986, Calvin Klein filed another motion for a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and contempt order. It sought to enjoin Parfums from marketing any fragrance product bearing the like/love slogan and the OBSESSION trademark, to have Parfums held in contempt for selling CONFESS body spray or spray cologne without appropriate disclaimers or displays, to require Parfums to obtain court permission before selling any future products bearing the OBSESSION mark, to recall all CONFESS products from distribution, and to award costs, fees, and damages to Calvin Klein. On December 23, 1986, Calvin Klein also filed a motion for a contempt order and to preliminarily enjoin Parfums from using scented strips of paper coated with the CONFESS fragrance as part of a promotional campaign carried in Christmas catalogues distributed by several discount store chains. 11 Parfums' and Calvin Klein's motions were referred by the district court to a special master pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 53. On January 30, 1987, the special master issued a report recommending that the district court enter an order granting Parfums' requested modification of the June 30 order and denying all relief requested by Calvin Klein in its November 17 motion. In a second report issued on February 3, 1987, the special master treated Calvin Klein's December 23 motion as an extension of the motion for preliminary injunctive relief discussed in the first report. Stating that he found nothing about the scent strips that might mislead the public into believing that CONFESS products are in any way associated with    Calvin Klein, the special master concluded that Calvin Klein had not proved its case and again recommended that the district court deny Calvin Klein's requested relief. After considering Calvin Klein's objections, the district court in two separate orders issued on May 12, 1987, adopted both of the special master's reports and recommendations pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 53(e)(2). Calvin Klein appeals the modification of the June 30 order and the denials of injunctive relief in the May 12, 1987, orders. 5 12 Calvin Klein first contends that the district court abused its discretion in adopting the special master's January 30 report and recommendation that the June 30 order be modified to allow Parfums to market the body spray container if a disclaimer sticker were affixed to it. It argues that the disclaimer proposed by Parfums and recommended by the special master is not specific enough to fulfill the requirements established in the June 30 order. In reviewing the denial of a preliminary injunction, the findings of fact as set forth by the special master and adopted by the district court will not be set aside unless those findings are clearly erroneous. Bio-medicus, Inc. v. Shareholders Comm. in Opposition, 608 F.2d 1155, 1158 (8th Cir.1979); see Fed.R.Civ.P. 53(e)(2) (in non-jury actions the court shall accept the master's findings of fact unless clearly erroneous). Because we find that the special master's findings are supported by the record and that in adopting those findings the district court did not abuse its discretion, we affirm. 13 Calvin Klein correctly notes that consumer confusion can be avoided through the use of disclaimers that are both prominent and express, see Toro Co. v. R & R Products Co., 787 F.2d 1208, 1214 (8th Cir.1986), and that the district court had found in its June 30 order that the like/love slogan as used on the body spray container was ambiguous. It argues that the disclaimer proposed by Parfums is inadequate because it does not distinguish between the sources of the two fragrances, because the sticker is relatively inconspicuous, and because the lettering on the sticker's face is much smaller than that on the body spray container itself. However, we believe that the special master could find that the disclaimer was adequate for preliminary injunction purposes to cure any confusion that the court had previously found to be created by the body spray container. The special master correctly noted that the language of the June 30 order suggesting acceptable disclaimer language was phrased in the disjunctive to require that any disclaimer state that CONFESS is an imposter or that it is not an OBSESSION product. Moreover, he found that the disclaimer sticker does tend to draw attention to itself and concluded that by identifying CONFESS as a Designer Imposter, the disclaimer invites consumers to compare CONFESS and OBSESSION as products from two distinct sources. 14 Calvin Klein contends that in reviewing the facts before making his recommendation, the special master improperly ignored survey evidence submitted to him and erroneously based his conclusions merely on a visual inspection of the container itself. We disagree. As we have stated before, a visual inspection is permissible as an aid in determining likely confusion if it does not serve as the sole basis for the decision regarding preliminary injunctive relief. See Calvin Klein, 815 F.2d at 504. Here, the special master did not rely only on his own visual inspection of the container and the attached disclaimer, but was also guided by the district court's earlier factual findings, which we have determined above to be not clearly erroneous. Moreover, the special master did not disregard Calvin Klein's survey evidence. Rather, he gave the survey little weight at this stage of the proceedings because he had doubts as to its probative value and he was unable to evaluate properly its foundation in the absence of sworn testimony from qualified witnesses who prepared or analyzed the surveys. Because a special master, like a district court, has broad discretion in the weight given to the materials submitted by the parties, see Calvin Klein, 815 F.2d at 504, we believe that the special master could have found under the record before him that Calvin Klein had failed to carry its burden to show that injunctive relief was warranted. In turn, the district court did not abuse its discretion in adopting the special master's recommendation that the June 30 order be modified to allow the body spray container to be sold if the proposed disclaimer sticker was attached. 15 Calvin Klein also argues that the district court abused its discretion in adopting the special master's February 3 recommendation that the district court deny Calvin Klein's motion to enjoin Parfums' use of scent strips in its advertising. These scent strips, which depicted a spray cologne bottle and package 6 that did not carry disclaimer language, were placed in the Christmas catalogues of several discount store chains. The special master found that these retail outlets stood at a great competitive distance from the quality department store venues in which Calvin Klein markets OBSESSION products. Moreover, presuming that the catalogues in which the scent strips were inserted had been distributed to consumers some weeks prior to Calvin Klein's December 23, 1986 motion, the special master found that recalling the catalogues would be an exercise in futility. We believe that the district court did not abuse its discretion in adopting the special master's report and recommendation that Calvin Klein's motion to enjoin the scent strips be denied.