Opinion ID: 3065119
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Extent and Exclusivity of Use

Text: Art Attacks attempts to show that its trade dress has acquired secondary meaning based on the fact that Art Attacks held a copyright to Spoiled Brats designs for over five years. See Filipino Yellow Pages, 198 F.3d at 1151 (“Secondary meaning can be established in many ways, including . . . exclusivity, manner, and length of use of a mark”). [16] Other circuits have explicitly held that extensive use alone cannot establish secondary meaning. See, e.g. Vision Center v. Opticks, 596 F.2d 111, 119 (5th Cir. 1979) (“[C]ourts have summarily rejected claims of secondary meaning predicated solely upon the continued use of the mark for many years”) (internal quotation omitted). Our own cases have suggested that secondary meaning requires more than extensive use alone. See, e.g., Clamp Mfg., 870 F.2d at 517 (“[e]vidence of use and advertising over a substantial period of time is enough to establish secondary meaning”) (emphasis added); E. & J. Gallo Winery v. Gallo Cattle Co., 967 F.2d 1280, 1291 (9th Cir. 1992) (holding that a mark acquired sec13454 ART ATTACKS v. MGA ENTERTAINMENT ondary meaning due to continued use of forty-six years and “extensive and expensive advertising and promotion”). [17] Art Attacks also cites 15 U.S.C. § 1052(f) for support. That statute, which applies to trademark registration, clearly states, however, that “proof of substantially exclusive and continuous use thereof as a mark by the applicant in commerce for the five years before the date on which the claim of distinctiveness is made” can serve as prima facie evidence of distinctiveness. Id. (emphasis added). Art Attacks showed no evidence of exclusivity. Here, therefore, a reasonable jury could not have found secondary meaning based solely on five years of use.