Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Co. v. Gold Rush, Inc.

633 F.2d 746, 208 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 631, 1980 U.S. App. LEXIS 12340
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 13, 1980
Docket80-1426
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 633 F.2d 746 (Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Co. v. Gold Rush, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Co. v. Gold Rush, Inc., 633 F.2d 746, 208 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 631, 1980 U.S. App. LEXIS 12340 (8th Cir. 1980).

Opinion

633 F.2d 746

208 U.S.P.Q. 631, 7 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 252

BLACK HILLS JEWELRY MANUFACTURING CO., a South Dakota
Corporation, F. L. Thorpe Company, a South Dakota
Corporation and Stamper Jewelry
Manufacturing, a South Dakota
Corporation, Appellees,
v.
GOLD RUSH, INC., a North Dakota Corporation a/k/a "Black
Hills Gold Jewelry by Gold Rush", Appellant,
and
Kirk Enterprises, Inc., a New Mexico Corporation, a/k/a
"Black Hills Gold Jewelry by Kirk",
LaBelle's, a Corporation, Appellant,
Herberger's Department Store, a Corporation, Appellant.

No. 80-1426.

United States Court of Appeals,
Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Sept. 8, 1980.
Decided Nov. 13, 1980.

Ronald L. Haskvitz, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellants.

Geo. A. Bangs and James P. Hurley, Rapid City, S.D., for appellees.

Before BRIGHT, ROSS and STEPHENSON, Circuit Judges.

STEPHENSON, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs-appellees are three South Dakota corporations located in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. They are in the business of manufacturing a certain design of gold jewelry which they market under the name "Black Hills Gold Jewelry." Appellees brought this action under section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a), seeking injunctive relief against the use by defendants-appellants of the words "Black Hills Gold Jewelry" to describe jewelry of a style similar to that of appellees, but not manufactured in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The district court,1 relying on 15 U.S.C. §§ 1125(a) and 1127, held that although appellees were not entitled to the exclusive use of the phrase "Black Hills Gold Jewelry," an injunction would issue prohibiting appellants from using the phrases "Black Hills Gold" or "Black Hills Gold Jewelry" to describe jewelry not made in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Appellants' major contentions on appeal are that: (1) The district court incorrectly held appellants could be afforded relief based on the existence of a common law unregistered certification mark; (2) the district court was clearly erroneous in several factual findings especially in finding that the phrase "Black Hills Gold Jewelry" was merely geographically descriptive and not a generic term for the design of the gold jewelry; (3) several evidentiary rulings by the district court were improper; and (4) the issuing of the injunction was improper. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellees are three separate, distinct, and independent companies that manufacture basically only one product, three-color gold jewelry in a grape and leaf design. All three appellees market their product as "Black Hills Gold Jewelry," sometimes preceded by their corporate name and the word "original" or "genuine." See Findings of Fact 2-11, Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Co. v. LaBelle's, 489 F.Supp. 754, 760 (D.S.D.1980). All three companies can trace their beginnings back to one of the earliest manufacturers of "Black Hills Gold Jewelry," Mr. F. L. Thorpe.

Until recently, appellees were the only manufacturers of this design of jewelry who marketed it as "Black Hills Gold Jewelry," and their only place of manufacture was and is the Black Hills of South Dakota. Beginning sometime in 1977, other manufacturers and retailers began to market jewelry of this or a similar design as "Black Hills Gold Jewelry," although none of the jewelry was manufactured in the Black Hills.2

In 1978, appellant Gold Rush, Inc. began manufacturing three-color gold grape and leaf design jewelry in Bismarck, North Dakota and selling it as "Black Hills Gold Jewelry by Gold Rush." The other two appellants are retailers of "Black Hills Gold Jewelry." Appellant Herberger's purchased jewelry which was sold as "Black Hills Gold" from Gold Rush, Inc., and appellant LaBelle's purchased jewelry which was sold as "Black Hills Gold" from both Gold Rush, Inc. and Felco Jewel Industries, a manufacturer of jewelry located in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Appellees brought suit in August 1979, against Gold Rush and later against the retailers. These suits were consolidated for trial.

On May 1, 1980, the district court issued its Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law, and Memorandum Opinion. See Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Co. v. LaBelle's, 489 F.Supp. 754 (D.S.D.1980). In addition to the facts summarized above and detailed infra as discussion requires, the district court made the following findings of fact which are relevant to this appeal:

20. In connection with its store located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Defendant Herberger's advertised in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader a sale of "Black Hills Gold Jewelry by Gold Rush" and included in said advertisement a picture of Mount Rushmore National Monument, which is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

21. Defendant LaBelle's has also run advertisements promoting the sale of so-called Black Hills Gold Jewelry in newspapers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota and Rapid City, South Dakota. These advertisements have included pictures of Mount Rushmore National Monument, even though the jewelry advertised was manufactured in either Bismarck, North Dakota or Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

26. The consuming public generally considers the terms Black Hills Gold or Black Hills Gold Jewelry to refer to jewelry products manufactured in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

27. The actions of the Defendants in promoting and selling jewelry not manufactured in the Black Hills as Black Hills Gold or Black Hills Gold Jewelry has created the likelihood of consumer confusion as to the origin of products labelled as Black Hills Gold or Black Hills Gold Jewelry.

28. The first time any of the Plaintiffs became aware of the use of the name Black Hills Gold Jewelry by a manufacturer of three-color gold, grape and leaf design jewelry located outside the Black Hills of South Dakota occurred approximately three years prior to the filing of this litigation. Upon Plaintiffs' demand, the Rhode Island firm producing such jewelry stopped using the term Black Hills Gold to identify its products.

29. The Defendants' first use of the name Black Hills Gold or Black Hills Gold Jewelry on any of their jewelry products occurred approximately eighteen months prior to the commencement of this litigation. Plaintiffs filed this action soon after the Defendants openly advertised their products in local newspapers as Black Hills Gold Jewelry.

30. Plaintiffs have been reasonably diligent in taking action to protect the name Black Hills Gold Jewelry from use by manufacturers of similar products located outside the Black Hills of South Dakota.

31. Plaintiffs have not been guilty of unclean hands surrounding their attempts to protect their use of the terms Black Hills Gold and Black Hills Gold Jewelry.

32. Use of the terms Black Hills Gold or Black Hills Gold Jewelry will cause consumers to purchase products of the Defendants when they in fact wished to purchase a product manufactured in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

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633 F.2d 746, 208 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 631, 1980 U.S. App. LEXIS 12340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/black-hills-jewelry-manufacturing-co-v-gold-rush-inc-ca8-1980.