Reverse Passing Off: Preventing Healthy Competition

• Publication year: 1997

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND LAW REVIEWVolume 20, No. 3SPRING 1997

COMMENTS

Reverse Passing Off: Preventing Healthy Competition

Catherine Romero Wright(fn*)

DILBERT® reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

I. INTRODUCTION

Chad Wayland, a university student, was an avid snowboarder.(fn1) When he was not on the slopes or involved with homework, he was waxing his board or experimenting with adjustments to it in his garage. Eventually, Chad discovered that some of the adjustments that he had made to his board really improved its performance. His snowboarding friends noticed it too. Chad ended up with a small garage business, fixing up snowboards for his friends and their friends.

One day, a Japanese corporation approached Chad and asked if he would sell them a few of his modified snowboards. Knowing that this was an excellent opportunity to develop a business that he really loved, Chad accepted the offer. He purchased twenty snowboards from the Slide Corporation, modified fifteen of them, and sent the entire batch to the Japanese corporation. The Japanese corporation was impressed with his modified board. It ordered 200 more and offered to pay a very large amount. It also asked him to send fifty of Slide's boards without the modification, just so that they could offer their customers two options. It would also compensate him for the trouble of sending the unmodified Slide boards.

Excited, Chad entered into an agreement with the Japanese corporation. Finally, somebody appreciated his ingenuity! Unfortunately, somebody else did not appreciate his ingenuity, or his competition. Slide Corporation soon sued Chad under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act(fn2) for reverse passing off.

Reverse passing off occurs when one party removes or obliterates the original trademark on a product, without permission, and sells the product either unbranded, or with the actor's own mark.(fn3) Some courts have extended the cause of action to include situations like Chad's, where a product has been somewhat modified, rebranded, and sold.(fn4)

Unfortunately for the Chads of the world, many courts are stifling competition and product development by expanding the use of reverse passing off. This primarily injures small entrepreneurs, like Chad, who are often economically deprived. If Chad had the resources to set up a shop, he could legally manufacture the entire snowboard as long as it was not patented.(fn5) However, this is probably not a realistic option for a young entrepreneur like Chad, who does not have the funds for that kind of an operation.

The Ninth Circuit historically has protected the ability of entrepreneurs to enter the marketplace by limiting a reverse passing off action to cases where there has been a "bodily appropriation," in other words, where the original product has simply been relabeled.(fn6) Unfortunately, by moving away from this standard and toward a standard adopted by some of the other circuits, the Ninth Circuit has protected monopolies and raised barriers to marketplace entry.(fn7)

In order to protect creativity, the development of products, and access to the marketplace, the Ninth Circuit should readopt the strict bodily appropriations test when determining whether a plaintiff has a legitimate claim under the Lanham Act for reverse passing off. This test protects product originators from having their products mislabeled and it protects entrepreneurs like Chad, who can make valuable contributions to products.

This Comment begins with a brief description of the origins of reverse passing off, followed by its evolution in the Ninth Circuit. The expansion of this cause of action in some other circuits is examined; and finally, this Comment explains how the expansion of this cause of action can promote unfair competition and injure healthy competition, a consequence that the Lanham Act was intended to prevent.

II. The Development of Reverse Passing Off

A. Passing Off

The tort of "passing off' or "palming off appeared in the early nineteenth century as a descendant of fraud and deceit.(fn8) Passing off consisted of selling one's goods under the pretense that they originated from another source.(fn9) For instance, the sale of a cheap watch with a "Rolex" mark on it would constitute passing off. As with fraud and deceit, during the tort's early years, passing off generally required a wrongful intent on the part of the actor.(fn10)

In 1946, "passing off and other forms of commercial misconduct were incorporated into the Lanham Act as forms of unfair competition.(fn11) Although the Lanham Act does not specifically mention passing off, this action falls within Section 43(a), which prohibits false designations of origins.(fn12) Because the Lanham Act is concerned with protecting consumers from becoming confused by the use of similar marks, the wrongful intent element is no longer necessary for a finding of "passing off."(fn13)

Today, "passing off continues to be a major form of unfair competition.(fn14) The term is often used in situations where an actor has substituted the goods of one manufacturer for the goods of a manufacturer requested by a customer.(fn15) For example, a customer might order a Ford brand car part from an auto supply store. The store, which is out of the Ford brand, sends the customer the same part made by brand X and hides the fact that the part is not the Ford brand that was ordered. The store has just passed off brand X's part as a Ford part. Traditional "passing off' is still prevalent too, but probably more often in other countries where popular brand names such as "Gucci," "Chanel," and "Rolex" are affixed to products which are not.(fn16)

B. Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act

Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act prohibits unfair competition such as "passing off." An action will arise under this section of the Lanham Act when[a]ny person who, on or in connection with any goods or services . . . uses in commerce . . . any false designation of origin . . . which is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person, or as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of his or her goods . . . .(fn17)

Two main policies are served by the Lanham Act: the protection of consumers against deception and confusion as to the origin or nature of a trademarked product, and the protection of trademark owners from others who would take advantage of the owners' good will or deceive consumers as to the origin or nature of the products sold under their marks.(fn18)

Section 43(a) was enacted mainly to codify the common law action of "passing off."(fn19) Because reverse passing off was not actionable at common law,(fn20) the early actions under Section 43(a) were limited primarily to traditional passing off claims. It was not until several years later that other types of unfair competition claims were brought under Section 43(a).(fn21)

C. The Appearance of Reverse Passing Off

The first case to expand Section 43(a) to other forms of unfair competition was L'Aiglon Apparel, Inc. v. Lana Lobell, Inc.(fn22) In that case, a defendant was held liable for using a photograph of a competitor's higher quality dress in advertising its inferior, cheaper dress. The use of Section 43(a) in other unfair competition situations slowly expanded from that point.(fn23) Reverse passing off was first found to be actionable under Section 43(a) in John Wright, Inc. v. Casper Corp., a case that addressed the misbranding of a product.(fn24)

There are two types of reverse passing off claims: express reverse passing off and implied reverse passing off.(fn25) Express reverse passing off occurs when the original trademark is removed or obliterated without permission, and the actor sells the product with her own mark.(fn26) Implied reverse passing off occurs when the original trademark is removed without permission, and the actor sells the product in an unbranded state.(fn27) For instance, if Chad removes the Slide label from snowboards and sells them with a "Chad" label on them, he has committed express reverse passing off. If Chad instead removes the Slide label and sells the snowboards with no label, he has committed implied reverse passing off. Several courts have held that implied reverse passing off is not actionable.(fn28) This Comment focuses on the more common action of express reverse passing off.

III. Reverse Passing Off in the Ninth Circuit

A. Smith v. Montoro and Copyright Law

The Ninth Circuit first recognized reverse passing off as a cause of action under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act in Smith v. Montoro.(fn29) In Smith, the defendant, a motion picture company, had removed the plaintiff-actor's name from the credits of a film that the plaintiff had starred in and replaced the plaintiffs name with the name of another actor. The plaintiff sued under Section 43(a). The court found that "a section 43(a) claim may be based on economic practices or conduct that is 'economically equivalent' to palming off," and that "[s]uch practices include reverse passing off."(fn30) The court recognized that reverse passing off, like passing off, involves the wrongful misappropriation of another's talents and workmanship. This misappropriation...