Christian Faith Fellowship Church v. Adidas AG

841 F.3d 986, 101 Fed. R. Serv. 1326, 120 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1640, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 20382, 2016 WL 6678408
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedNovember 14, 2016
Docket2016-1296
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 841 F.3d 986 (Christian Faith Fellowship Church v. Adidas AG) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Christian Faith Fellowship Church v. Adidas AG, 841 F.3d 986, 101 Fed. R. Serv. 1326, 120 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1640, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 20382, 2016 WL 6678408 (Fed. Cir. 2016).

Opinion

STOLL, Circuit Judge.

Christian Faith Fellowship Church appeals a final judgment of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board that, in response to a petition filed by adidas AG, cancelled its trademarks for failing to use the marks in commerce before registering them. The Board held that the Church’s documented sale of two marked hats to an out-of-state resident were de minimis and therefore did not constitute use of the marks in commerce under the Lanham Act. Because the Lanham Act defines commerce as all activity regulable by Congress, ;and because the Church’s sale to an. out-of-state *988 resident fell within Congress s power to regulate under the Commerce Clause, we reverse the Board’s cancellation of the Church’s marks on this basis and remand for further proceedings.

BackgRound

⅜—I

Christian Faith Fellowship Church is located in Zion, Illinois, within five miles of the Ulinois-Wisconsin border. Being located so close to the border, the Church’s parishioners include both Illinois and Wisconsin residents. In January 2005, the Church began selling apparel, both caps and shirts, emblazoned with the phrase “ADD A ZERO.” The Church sold the “ADD A ZERO”-marked apparel as part of a fundraising campaign to pay off the debt on its church facility and the associated 40-acre tract of land. Illinois-based Icon Industries supplied the Church with the “ADD A ZERO”-marked apparel, which the Church sold in its bookstore. 1

The Church sought a federal trademark for the “ADD A ZERO” mark at the U.S, Patent and Trademark Office in March 2005. The Church filed two clothing-based trademark applications, one for use of “ADD A ZERO” in standard characters and another for a stylized design of the phrase. The Church’s applications relied on actual use of the marks in commerce, not intent to use the marks in commerce. The Office granted the Church’s applications and registered the marks as U.S. Registration Nos. 3,173,207 and 3,173,208.

II.

In 2009, adidas AG (“Adidas”) sought a clothing trademark for the phrase “AD-IZERO, but the Office refused the application for likelihood of confusion with the Church’s “ADD A ZERO” marks. Adidas brought an action before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to cancel the Church’s marks, arguing several grounds for cancellation: (1) the Church’s failure to use the marks in commerce before registration; (2) the marks’ failure to function as trademarks; and (3) the Church’s abandonment of the marks for nonuse. The Board agreed with Adidas’s failure-to-use argument and cancelled the Church’s marks, without addressing Adidas’s alternate cancellation grounds. The Board considered the Church’s proffered evidence— over Adidas’s hearsay and authentication objections—of a cancelled check for the sale of two “ADD A ZERO”-marked hats for $38.34 in February 2005, before the Church applied for its marks. The Church had kept the check in its records and cross-referenced it with a sales register it maintained for its bookstore. The check’s drawer was Charlotte Howard, who had a Wisconsin home address pre-printed on her check.

The Board disagreed with the Church that the sale to Ms. Howard evidenced the requisite “use in commerce” under the Lanham Act. The Board concluded:

[T]he sale of two ADD A ZERO caps at a minimal cost within the state of Illinois to Ms. Howard, who resides outside the state, does not affect commerce that Congress can regulate such that the transaction would constitute use in commerce for purposes of registration.
... This sale is de minimis and, under the circumstances shown here, is *989 insufficient to show use that affects interstate commerce.

adidas AG v. Christian Faith Fellowship Church, Cancellation No. 92053B14, 2015 WL 5882313, at *7 (T.T.A.B. Sept. 14, 2015) (.Board Op.) (footnote omitted).

The Church appeals, and we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(4)(B).

Discussion

The Lanham Act provides that “[t]he owner of a trademark used in commerce may request registration of its trademark.” 15 U.S.C. § 1051(a)(1) (emphasis added). Section 1051(a)’s “use in commerce” requirement distinguishes it from § 1051(b), which offers protection for “[a] person who has a bona fide intention, under circumstances showing the good faith of such person, to use a trademark in commerce.” Id. § 1051(b). The Lanham Act explains the “use in commerce” requirement as it relates to goods: .

The term “use in commerce” means the bona fide use of a mark in • the ordinary course of trade, and not made merely to reserve a right in a mark. For purposes of this chapter, a mark shall be deemed to be in use in commerce—
(1) on goods when—
(A) it is placed in any manner on the goods or their containers or the displays associated therewith or on the tags or labels affixed thereto, or if the nature of the goods makes such placement impracticable, then on documents associated with the goods or their sale, and
(B) the goods are sold or transported in commerce....

Id. § 1127 (emphases added). Further, the Lanham Act defines “commerce” as “all commerce which may lawfully be regulated by Congress.” Id. Thus, to register a mark under § 1051(a), one must sell or transport goods bearing the mark such that the sale or transport would be subject to Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause, which includes its power to regulate interstate commerce. Larry Harmon Pictures Corp. v. Williams Rest Corp., 929 F.2d 662, 664 (Fed. Cir. 1991) (citing U.S. Const., art. I, § 8); see also In re Silenus Wines, Inc., 557 F.2d 806, 808-12 (CCPA 1977).

The dispute between the parties in this case is limited to whether the Church, which filed its applications under § 1051(a)’s “use in commerce” subsection, made a sale of marked goods in commerce regulable by Congress before applying for its marks.

I.

As a threshold matter, we address whether the Board erred in admitting Ms. Howard’s check into evidence and in finding that Ms. Howard resided in Wisconsin. Adidas argues that the Board should not have admitted the check because Ms. Howard’s pre-printed address on the check constitutes inadmissible hearsay and because the check was not authenticated. We review the Board’s admission of the cheek for abuse of discretion. Coach Servs., Inc. v. Triumph Learning LLC, 668 F.3d 1356, 1363 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (citing Crash Dummy Movie, LLC v. Mattel, Inc.,

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841 F.3d 986, 101 Fed. R. Serv. 1326, 120 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1640, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 20382, 2016 WL 6678408, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/christian-faith-fellowship-church-v-adidas-ag-cafc-2016.