Court Opinion

ID: 9462809
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:50:58.611249+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:48.047248
License: Public Domain

PER CURIAM:

On Petition of Appellant for Rehearing

By petition for rehearing plaintiff-appellant, Abercrombie & Fitch Company (A&F), *15requested us to alter our opinion filed January 16, 1976, in two respects: one was that footnote 14, p. 13, describing the scope of cancellation of Trademark Registration No. 703,279, be modified by omitting the word “shirts”. The other was that we should not uphold the “fair use” defense, pp. 13-14, as to Hippo Safari and Camel Safari shoes. We called upon defendant-appellee Hunting World, Inc. (HW) to answer.
We agree with A&F that footnote 14 was in error in indicating that Safari had become generic with respect to shirts. Since the mark has become incontestable, it is of no moment, on the issue of cancellation, that, as HW urges, the mark may now be “merely descriptive,” pp. 12-13. HW’s answer adduces nothing to show that Safari has become the “common descriptive name” for this type of shirt; indeed, HW admits never having advertised its own shirts as such. While HW asserts that “the record is clear that the upper garment of the safari suit is referred to interchangeably as a safari bush jacket and as a safari shirt,” the cited pages do not bear this out.
On the other hand we see no force in A&F’s criticisms of the portion of our opinion relating to the fair use defense with respect to Hippo Safari and Camel Safari shoes sufficient to lead us to change the views previously expressed or, indeed, to require further discussion.
The petition for rehearing is granted to the extent of striking the word “shirts” from fn. 14 on p. 13 and is otherwise denied.