Opinion ID: 771716
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sight, Sound, Meaning

Text: 77 The District Court closely examined the sight, sound, and meaning of the competing marks and concluded that, purely on the aesthetic level, the marks alone are somewhat distinct. A&H IV, 57 F. Supp. 2d at 167. Considering the sound of the marks, it noted that although they share the term MIRACLE, there are different numbers of syllables, and the last syllable of each is different. Moreover, Miraclesuit bleeds two words together while The Miracle Bra consists of three discrete words. In short, the District Court concluded that the two marks sound different. We agree. The court also properly noted that in previous cases, where courts had found a likelihood of confusion based on sound, a closer phonetic similarity was often present. See id. (citing Bell Publ'g Corp. v. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publ'g Group, 17 U.S.P.Q.2d 1634, 1637 (E.D. Pa. 1990) (Dell and Bell); Pocono Rubber Cloth Co. v. J.A. Livingston, Inc., 79 F.2d 446, 448 (3d Cir. 1935) (swavelle and swavel)). 78 The District Court recognized that other, less similar-sounding marks had been found to be confusingly similar, as in Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Co. v. Davis Manufacturing Co., 251 F.2d 924, 926-27 (3d Cir. 1958), where the court upheld the trial court's determination that the marks Dickie Davis and Dickie's were confusingly similar. However, it concluded that these cases could be distinguished because the presentations of the Miraclesuit and The Miracle Bra marks were sufficiently different to create an overall impression that was not confusingly similar, especially in light of Victoria's Secret's disclaimer and the use of the housemarks, as discussed infra Section IV.A.2. 79 Turning to the visual difference, the court noted that Miraclesuit is often accompanied by the Look ten pounds lighter in ten seconds! slogan, in various incarnations. Moreover, the court observed that: 80 The Miracle Bra is presented in either all capital block letters or in small capital letters with the letters, T,M,B alone in upper capital letters, while the Miraclesuit has sometimes been advertised with the initial letter M capitalized and the rest of the mark in lower-case letters in italicized script or as one word with both the M and S capitalized. 81 A&H IV, 57 F. Supp. 2d at 167. The court also determined that the meaning of the two marks was slightly different, as the descriptive word bra focused attention on the brassiere portion of the Victoria's Secret product, rather than on the entire suit. See A&H IV, 57 F. Supp. 2d at 166- 67 (stating that the term bra distinguishes the Victoria's Secret product because it identifies the particular feature of the garment where the `miracle' is manifested). This conclusion accords with the District Court's finding in A&H I, which was upheld by the en banc court. See A&H III, 166 F.3d at 195 ([D]escriptive terms (such as `bra' and `suit') must be considered in assessing infringement.). 82 Taking all of these elements into account, the District Court concluded that, without consideration of the role of the housemark and the disclaimer, the Miraclesuit mark and The Miracle Bra mark are somewhat distinct in sight, sound and meaning. A&H IV, 57 F. Supp. 2d at 168. A&H challenges this analysis. It begins by asserting that, because the dominant portion of each mark is the word Miracle, and the other words in each mark are generic (bra, swimwear, suit, the), the marks must be deemed confusingly similar. It grounds this analysis on Country Floors, Inc. v. Partnership of Gepner and Ford, 930 F.2d 1056 (3d Cir. 1991), in which we noted that it was relevant for purposes of comparison whether, in registering two marks, the PTO required certain descriptive elements of the mark to be disclaimed. Comparing Country Tiles and Country Floors, we held that because floors and tiles were discounted as generic in the application to the PTO, the use of the word `Country' by the Partnership is a material, although not necessarily a controlling, consideration on the Corporation's claim that `Country Tiles' logo directly infringed on the Corporation's federal trademark. Id. at 1065. 83 According to A&H, the same logic dictates that these marks are likely to be confused. Not only is the dominant portion of each mark MIRACLE, but the PTO examining attorney discounted the word bra in Victoria's Secret's PTO application to use The Miracle Bra for swimwear. Furthermore, A&H notes that in Fisons, in which Fairway and Fairway Green were up against each other, we took the district court to task for focusing too heavily on the differences between the marks instead of analyzing the overall impression. There, we held that a subsequent user may not avoid likely confusion by appropriating another's entire mark and adding descriptive or non-descriptive matter to it. Id. at 477 (quoting 2 J. McCarthy, Trademarks and Unfair Competition S 23:15[8], at 23-102 (3d ed. 1992)). 84 We agree with A&H that the words the and bra and suit are not particularly potent, but none of our cases has suggested a per se rule about the impact of generic terms within a nongeneric trademark; ultimately, the weight to be given each word is a judgment call, best suited to the fact-finder. Although the District Court might well have been more emphatic in stating its ultimate conclusions on this score, in our view, the court did not err, much less clearly err, in finding that the sight and sound were distinct, despite the fact that the differences involve generic elements. 9