Court Opinion

ID: 9488027
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:34:12.543342+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:38.645586
License: Public Domain

FERGUSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the reversal of the district court’s preliminary injunction prohibiting Longs from selling Sebastian’s hair care products. I write separately, however, in order to resolve an issue not discussed by the majority. The district court erred in holding that the collective membership and service mark in this ease is valid. For this reason, Sebastian’s motion for a preliminary injunction was meritless.
A collective mark, be it a collective trademark, membership mark, or service mark, is different from a trademark:
The term “collective mark” means a. trademark or service mark—
(1) used by the members of a cooperative, an association, or other collective group or organization, or
(2) which such cooperative, association, or other collective group or organization has a bona fide intention to use in commerce and applies to register on the principal register established by this chapter, and includes marks indicating membership in a union, an association, or other organization.
15 U.S.C. § 1127. A primary consequence of this difference is that an “[ajpplication to register a membership mark must be made by the organization which controls or intends to control the use of the mark, and therefore, owns or is entitled to use the mark; application may not be made by a member.” Trademark Manual.of Examining Procedure, § 1304 (emphasis added). In F.R. Lepage Bakery v. Roush Bakery Products Co., 851 F.2d 351, 353 (Fed.Cir.1988), a case factually similar to the case at hand, the court held:
An individual person or corporation which is making and/or selling goods on which a trademark is being used is not, in that capacity, the owner of a collective mark and cannot register it as a collective mark. This is true even though such person or corporation is a member of a collective group.
(Emphasis in original.) If an individual member of a collective does register a collective mark, the mark is invalid. Id.
The district court noted that Sebastian, and not the organization, filed to register the collective membership and service mark. The district court tried to distinguish Lepage from this case, holding that Sebastian is not a member of the collective group and consequently could rightfully register the marks. However, the charter of the collective group unambiguously states:
*1078The charter member of this business club is SEBASTIAN, and is not subject to loss of membership.
The district court’s holding that Sebastian is not a member of the collective group was clearly erroneous.
As an individual member of the collective group, Sebastian was not entitled to register the collective membership and service mark. Because the collective mark is invalid, the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction on the basis of the protection provided by the mark was improper.