Overwhelming Differences Lead to Summary Judgment of No Trade Dress Infringement

Topps Co. sued Koko’s Confectionery & Novelty for patent infringement and trade dress infringement.

The district court granted summary judgment of non-infringement of the patent, and of non-infringement of the trade dress.

As to the trade dress infringement claim, the district court said no reasonable jury could find that the trade dresses of the Juicy Drop Pop and the Squeezy Squire Pop are confusingly similar because the lack of similarity between the two products is “overwhelming.” The district court noted that (1) in SSP, the nozzle cap and candy handle are adjacent to each other, while the nozzle and the handle in JDP are located on opposite ends, (2) SSP’s nozzle cap has a plastic “geyser” of the liquid candy in the same color as the nozzle cap, whereas JDP lacks an analogous feature and its nozzle and nozzle cap are a different color from that of the rest of the trade dress. (3) SSP’s nozzle cap and handle are far larger and in different shapes from those of JDP. (4) Lastly, SSP’s bottle has an oval-shaped compressible portion with concentric ovals; JDP ‘s compressible bottle has a round compressible portion with a swirl design. The district court said “[t]aking these features into account, the overall impression of the two products are dissimilar.