Opinion ID: 786737
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Supreme Court and Nabisco

Text: 64 The Supreme Court's reversal of V Secret calls into doubt the continued vitality of the Nabisco test. Between the district court's grant of summary judgment and the parties' oral argument before us, the Supreme Court reversed V Secret. See Moseley v. v. Secret Catalogue, Inc., 537 U.S. 418, 123 S.Ct. 1115, 155 L.Ed.2d 1 (2003) ( Moseley ). To resolve a circuit split, the Supreme Court addressed the discrete issue of whether a dilution claim required proof of actual dilution or whether proof of a likelihood of dilution would suffice. Id. at 428, 123 S.Ct. 1115; see v. Secret, 259 F.3d at 476 (adopting likelihood of dilution standard); Nabisco, 191 F.3d at 223-24 (adopting likelihood of dilution standard); Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, Inc. v. Utah Div. of Travel Dev., 170 F.3d 449, 464 (4th Cir.1999) (requiring proof of actual dilution). Analyzing the text of § 1125(c)(1), the Court held that the statute unambiguously requires a showing of actual dilution, rather than a likelihood of dilution. Moseley, 537 U.S. at 433, 123 S.Ct. 1115. Actual dilution does not mean that the consequences of dilution, such as an actual loss of sales or profits, must also be proved. Id. However, where the marks at issue are not identical, the mere fact that consumers mentally associate the junior user's mark with a famous mark is not sufficient to establish actionable dilution ... [because] such mental association will not necessarily reduce the capacity of the famous mark to identify the goods of its owner, the statutory requirement for dilution under the [antidilution act]. Id. The Court recognized that proof of actual dilution may be difficult to obtain, although it noted that circumstantial evidence can be used to show actual dilution under certain circumstances, such as the obvious case when the marks are identical. Id. at 434, 123 S.Ct. 1115. The Supreme Court reversed because the evidence was not sufficient to support summary judgment given the stricter standard adopted by the Court. Id. 65 Nothing in the Supreme Court's opinion in Moseley addressed the efficacy of the ten-factor test; the Supreme Court did not criticize the Second Circuit for creating the test or the Sixth Circuit for adopting it. The Supreme Court in essence made it more difficult for dilution claims to succeed because plaintiffs face a much higher hurdle of demonstrating actual dilution, but the Court was silent as to the manner in which courts must evaluate plaintiffs' success in overcoming that hurdle. This silence could imply that a test designed to measure likelihood of dilution may not be appropriate to evaluate actual dilution, but we are left without firm guidance on the issue. 66