Thursday, November 7, 2013

Boston Professional Hockey Association v. Dallas Cap and Emblem Mfg., Inc. case brief

Boston Professional Hockey Association v. Dallas Cap and Emblem Mfg., Inc. case brief summary
510 F.2d 1004 (1975)


CASE SYNOPSIS
Plaintiff hockey teams brought an action seeking to enjoin defendant manufacturer from producing and selling embroidered emblems depicting their trademarks. Plaintiffs appealed the judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which denied them Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.S. § 1051 et seq., relief and granted only limited relief for unfair competition.

CASE FACTS
Plaintiffs brought an action to enjoin defendant from manufacturing and selling embroidered emblems that depicted their trademarks. Plaintiffs asserted a cause of action for common law unfair competition and sought relief under 15 U.S.C.S. §§ 1114 and 1125 of the Lanham Act. The district court denied Lanham Act relief and granted only limited relief for unfair competition, requiring solely that defendant place on the emblems or the package a notice that the emblems were not authorized by or had not emanated from plaintiffs. Plaintiffs' claim for damages was denied. Plaintiffs appealed.

ISSUE
On appeal, the issue was whether the unauthorized, intentional duplication of a professional hockey team's symbol on an embroidered emblem, to be sold to the public as a patch for attachment to clothing, violated any legal right of the team to the exclusive use of that symbol.

HOLDING
The court reversed and remanded, holding that the team had an interest in its own individualized symbol entitled to legal protection against such unauthorized duplication.

CONCLUSION

The court reversed the decision and determined that all plaintiffs except one established a cause of action for registered mark infringement, but the court held that such plaintiff that had not registered its trademark had established that defendant's identical use of its mark constituted false representation. The court remanded the matter to the district court for further proceedings.

Suggested Study Aid For Sports Law

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