{"id":450,"date":"2020-04-01T13:38:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T17:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=450"},"modified":"2020-04-06T14:04:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T18:04:32","slug":"450","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=450","title":{"rendered":"Descriptive Use or Infringement?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was not April Fools joke — JaM Cellars, Inc. sued<\/a> The Wine Group LLC for trademark infringement and unfair competition, complaining that Franzia’s BOLD & JAMMY boxed wine infringes their JaM trademark:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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and Franzia’s RICH & BUTTERY wine infringed JaM’s BUTTER wine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JaM’s name is a mash-up of the owner’s names:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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http:\/\/www.johnanthonyfamilyofwines.com\/people\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

while BOLD & JAMMY is arguably a description of Franzia’s wine, “jammy” (according to wikipedia<\/a>) being a common descriptor: “Jammy<\/strong>: A wine that is rich in fruit but maybe lacking in tannins.” Is Franzia describing, infringing, or both?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butter is arguably descriptive of JaM’s Butter Chardonay. JaM says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to wikipedia<\/a>, Buttery, like jammy, is a common descriptor of wine: “Buttery<\/strong>: A wine that has gone through malolactic fermentation and has a rich, creamy mouthfeel with flavors reminiscent of butter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again the question is whether Franzia is describing its product, infringing JaM’s marks, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franzia’s biggest vulnerability may come from the change in its packaging, which JaM attributes to an intent to trade off of JaM’s good will:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Both parties may need to brush upon <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Both sides may need to brush up 15 USC 1115(b)(4), which provides:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That the use of the name, term, or device charged to be an infringement is a use, otherwise than as a mark, of the party\u2019s individual name in his own business, or of the individual name of anyone in privity with such party, or of a term or device which is descriptive of and used fairly and in good faith only to describe the goods or services of such party, or their geographic origin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was not April Fools joke — JaM Cellars, Inc. sued The Wine Group LLC for trademark infringement and unfair competition, complaining that Franzia’s BOLD & JAMMY boxed wine infringes their JaM trademark: and Franzia’s RICH & BUTTERY wine infringed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-descriptiveness","category-likelihood-of-confusion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}