Editors' Introduction: Surveys in Modern Litigation Involving Trademarks and Deceptive Advertising

AuthorShari Seidman Diamond - Jerre B. Swann
Pages3-7
3
1
Editors’
Introduction
Surveys in Modern Litigation
Involving Trademarks and
Deceptive Advertising
Fewlegal questionsvirtuallydemand systematic empirical evidence.
Yetthe standardquestionsthatcourts must address in trademarkand
deceptiveadvertising law1do just thatbecauseconsumerreaction is
the gravamen of infringement.Areconsumers likelytobeconfused as
tothe source of atrademarkorlikelytobedeceived byacommercial
message?Howcan weknowunless weexamine consumerreaction?2
Thus,itwasnatural thatsurveys would become astandardformof
evidence—perhapsthe standardformofevidence—on consumer
perception in casesinvolving trademarksand deceptiveadvertising.3
On the surface, designing asurveymayseem simple. Just write
some questionsand find some people toanswerthem. The expert who
1. In referring to“trademarklaw” in thisIntroduction, weinclude all of the topics
covered in the federal Lanham Act,and wecoversome issuesthatarealsoaddressed
bythe Federal Trade Commission Actand byvarious statelaws on unfaircompetition.
2.Courts haveobserved that“the court’s reaction isatbest notdeterminativeand
atworst irrelevant.The question in such casesis,whatdoesthe person towhom the
advertisementisaddressed find tobethe message?” American Brands,Inc. v.R.J.
ReynoldsTobacco Co., 413F. Supp. 1352,1357(S.D.N.Y. 1976).
3.The wide useofsurveys in recentyears wasforeshadowed in Triangle Publications,
Inc. v.Rohrlich, 167 F.2d969, 974(2dCir.1948) (Frank, J., dissenting). Called on to
determine whetheramanufacturerof girdleslabeled Miss Seventeeninfringed the
trademarkofthe magazine Seventeen,Judge Frank suggested that,inthe absence of a
test of the reactionsof numerous girlsand women,”the trial court judge’s finding as
towhatwaslikelytoconfusewas“nothing but asurmise, aconjecture, aguess,noting
that“neitherthe trial judge noranymemberof thiscourt is(orresembles)ateen-age girl
orthe motherorsisterof such agirl.Id.at97677.

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