Bowlz Beats Scoops!
Frito-Lay brought a
lawsuit against Medallion Foods for alleged trademark and trade dress
infringement, unfair competition, dilution, and patent infringement.
Frito-Lay loses its
case against Medallion Foods Inc in a battle over bowl-shaped tortilla chips. The
2012 lawsuit alleged the Bowlz chips had an identical chip design and similar
packaging intended to confuse consumers. Frito-Lay sent Medallion a cease-and-desist
letter giving them two days to stop making Bowlz chips because of the alleged
infringement. Medallion sued Frito-Lay seeking judgment in a federal court that
their chips did not infringe on Frito-Lay’s patents or marks.
Frito Lay claimed they
infringed on its patent and trade dress on the Scoops! chips. The jury found
Medallion did not infringe on Frito-Lay’s patent. Frito-Lay failed to prove
Medallion infringed on trade dress or competed unfairly by misappropriating the
design. The verdict meant that Medallion found a way to make bowl-shaped
tortilla chips with a sufficiently different process than Frito-Lay’s patented
process and that their chips were different enough to prevent confusion between
Bowlz and Scoops! Frito-Lay’s patents and trade dress rights remain valid and
enforceable. Federal law protects trade dress including shape, color, texture,
and graphics. Trademark generally includes all four. The law does not protect
trade names or dress as completely as trademark and service marks.
Trademark infringement occurred
in this case because there was a likelihood of confusion. Courts use a variety
of criteria to determine confusion including similarities of products or
services for which the marks are used, how consumers purchase the goods, how
well known the first used mark is, actual confusion that can be probed and how
long both marks have been used without confusion.
Unfair competition is
when one mass medium persistently takes information from another outlet and
presents news as its own. It is not a CR infringement but is actionable under
the common law of individual states.
Dilution is using a
famous trademark in a way that disparages the mark or diminishes its
effectiveness and can happen if a product is “blurred” or “tarnished.” Blurring
is when a product name similar to the trademark could make the famous mark less
distinctive and draws consumer attention away from it. Tarnishing occurs when a
poorly made product using a similar name could cause consumers to think less of
the well-known trademark. Frito-Lay’s concern was that, because of the
similarity of the product and packaging, consumers would not be able to tell
the difference between products and their name would be tarnished if Bowlz were
inferior to Scoops!
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