Court Opinion

ID: 9486026
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:36:21.052809+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:29.936451
License: Public Domain

MANSMANN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I disagree with the conclusion reached by the majority that the cancellation of a federally registered trademark is not immediately appealable and that we, therefore, lack jurisdiction in this case. Because I find that the district court’s *156order directing the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks to cancel Compression Polymer’s federal trademark registration is in-junctive in nature and in practical effect, I would conclude that we have jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1).
Section 1292(a)(1) provides that the courts of appeals shall have jurisdiction of appeals from “[ijnterlocutory orders of the district courts of the United States ... granting, continuing, modifying, refusing or dissolving injunctions.... ” Our jurisdiction pursuant to § 1292(a)(1) extends to the review of “orders that grant or deny injunctions and orders that have the practical effect of granting or denying injunctions and have ‘serious, perhaps irreparable, consequence.’ ” Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. v. Mayacamas Corp., 485 U.S. 271, 287-88, 108 S.Ct. 1133, 1142-43, 99 L.Ed.2d 296 (1988) (emphasis added) (citing Carson v. American Brands, Inc., 450 U.S. 79, 83, 101 S.Ct. 993, 996, 67 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981)). See also United States v. Santtini, 963 F.2d 585, 590 (3d Cir.1992). To fall within the scope of 1292(a)(1) and be deemed an “injunction”, the order must be directed to a party, enforceable by contempt and designed to accord or protect some or all of the substantive relief sought by a" complaint. Id. at 591. As we concluded in Cohen v. Board of Trustees, 867 F.2d 1455 (3d Cir.1989) (en banc), the “label” put on the order by the district court does not prevent us from treating it as an injunction for purposes of 1292(a)(1). Id. at 1466 (citations omitted.)
Thus, as the majority observes, the fact that the district court’s order here does not expressly state that the court is entering an injunction does not compel the conclusion that the order is not an injunction, as “we are not constrained by the district court’s characterization of its order,” Bailey v. Systems Innovation, Inc., 852 F.2d 93, 96 (3d Cir.1988); New Jersey State Nurses Assoc’n v. Treacy, 834 F.2d 67 (3d Cir.1987). Rather, our inquiry must focus on the practical effect of the district court’s order.
Here, the practical effect of the district court’s order directing the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks to cancel Compression Polymer’s trademark registration is the granting of an injunction to Santana Products. In addition to claims of unfair competition, infringement of state trademark (both statutory and at common law) and dilution of Santana’s business reputation, Santana Product’s complaint sought cancellation of Compression Polymer’s federal trademark registration. Thus, the district court order grants precisely to Santana Products an important aspect of the ultimate relief it seeks.
In addition, the order is susceptible of enforcement by contempt. As the majority observes, the order is not directly enforceable by contempt pendente lite against Compression Polymers. It is the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks that would be the subject of contempt for failure to comply with the district court’s order. This fact, however, does not alter my view that the order is injunctive in both nature and effect.1 Compression Polymers should not have to rely on the Commissioner’s willingness to risk contempt in order for Compression Polymers to have the dissolution of its trademark right reviewed on appeal.
The majority’s conclusion that the district court’s order “does not compel Compression Polymers to take any action, nor does the order restrain it from doing anything” exalts form over substance and turns a blind eye to the fact that Compression Polymers is denied the use of its federally registered trademark (federal statutory trademark protection) as effectively as if it were expressly enjoined by the district court from using its federal trademark. The practical effect of the district court’s cancellation order is that Compression Polymers is prohibited from representing that it enjoys the benefits and protection of federal trademark registration as *157surely as if an injunction had been granted to Santana Products.2
Santana Products sought summary judgment with respect to its claim for cancellation of Compression Polymers’ mark without seeking summary judgment relating to the trademark infringement, unfair competition and dilution claims. Clearly, the district court’s order requiring cancellation of Compression Polymers’ mark provided significant and substantive relief to Santana Products. Indeed, because of the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment in its favor, Santana Products has been able, through strategic piecemeal litigation, to achieve one of its ultimate goals in this lawsuit, that is, the prevention of Compression Polymers’ use of “Sanatec” as its trademark.
In holding that the cancellation of a federally registered trademark is not immediately appealable, the majority has deprived Compression Polymers of the means for reviewing the propriety of the district court’s cancellation order.3 Without appellate review, Compression Polymers is simply not free, as Santana Products suggests, to continue its use of the trademark “Sanatec.” If Compression Polymers continues to represent that it has proprietary rights in the disputed “Sanatec” mark, it does so at the risk of being held liable for damages, and possibly at the risk of receiving other sanctions as well. Cognizant that this situation leaves Compression Polymers between the proverbial “rock and a hard place”, I would recognize that the district court’s order has the practical effect of granting an injunction, and conclude that the cancellation order is appealable.

. This case is distinguishable from American Motorists Insurance Co. v. Levolor Lorentzen, Inc., 879 F.2d 1165, 1172-73 (3d Cir.1989) in which we found the order granting Levolor Lorentzen, Inc.'s motion for partial summary judgment with respect to the obligation [of AMICO] to provide a defense was not appealable. In that case, the district court, while effectively defining AMICO's duty, did not order it to undertake the defense, thus the order could not be enforced pendente lite by contempt. In our case, there is an order that is enforceable by contempt.

. The fact that Compression Polymers may still have federal common law or state trademark protection is of no import. Compression Polymers should not be required to forego the benefits of federal trademark legislation simply because other forms of trademark protection may be available.

. Had Santana Products specifically sought an injunction against Compression Polymers' use of the "Sanatec” mark, we clearly would have had jurisdiction over this dispute. See Wrist-Rocket Mfg. Co. v. Saunders Archery Co., 516 F.2d 846 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 870, 96 S.Ct. 134, 46 L.Ed.2d 100 (1975) (appellate court had jurisdiction to review order of cancellation and injunction against use of trademark). Santana Products, however, in its motion for partial summary judgment, did not seek an injunction enjoining Compression Polymers’ use of the disputed mark. Rather, Santana Products asked the court to grant equitable relief, to the same effect, by directing the Commission of Patents and Trademarks to cancel Compression Polymers trademark registration for the mark "Sanatec”.