Johnson & Johnson v. Diaz

339 F. Supp. 60, 172 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 35, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10952
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedNovember 3, 1971
DocketCiv. 71-252
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 339 F. Supp. 60 (Johnson & Johnson v. Diaz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson & Johnson v. Diaz, 339 F. Supp. 60, 172 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 35, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10952 (C.D. Cal. 1971).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT FOR PLAINTIFF

KELLEHER, District Judge.

This is an action for damages and for injunctive relief alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition under the Trademark Act of 1946, 15 U.S. C. § 1051 et seq., based on defendants’ labeling, manufacturing and selling a toilet water product, “AQUA DE COLONIA, JOHNSON” and their use of the trade style, “JOHNSON LABORATORIES” in the identification of their business.

Both parties have signed and lodged with the Court a revised proposed pretrial order which recites that there are no issues of fact remaining to be litigated at trial and upon defendants’ motion for summary judgment and plaintiff’s renewed motion for summary judgment have, after argument, submitted the cause for determination by the Court.

Plaintiff is a large and long established firm engaged in the manufacture and nationwide sale of surgical dressings, pharmaceutical preparations, cosmetics, toiletries and related products which are sold to the medical, dental, veterinary and nursing professions and to the general public through a variety of wholesale and retail outlets, including drug and grocery stores, which generally sell related cosmetic and toiletry items, as well. In the course of its business, plaintiff has expended substantial sums for advertising and has registered the trademarks “JOHNSON” 1 and “JOHNSON’s” 2 for various of its powder, cream, lotion and oil, soap, shampoo, topical antiseptic and related products, though none of plaintiff’s trademarks specify cologne water as a product to which these trademarks apply. Plaintiff has advertised and promoted use of these products by persons of all ages.

Defendants are Cuban immigrants to this country residing in Culver City, California. Prior to April 15, 1968, they conducted a business as co-partners under the name and style “Zaid Products Co.” Since that time, however, defendants have styled their business “JOHNSON LABORATORIES” and have engaged in the manufacture and sale of a toiletry item, cologne water, for use as an after shave and after bath preparation under the name and label “AQUA DE COLONIA, JOHNSON,” which was registered July 21, 1970, on the Supplemental Register of the United States Patent Office for cologne, No. *63 895,254. In the production and packaging of their product, defendants have duplicated the formula and labeling formerly employed by a pharmacist in Havana, Manuel Johnson, now deceased; this product was, at one time, well known and widely sold in Cuba but is no longer being produced. Defendants distribute their product solely to Cuban markets and other retail outlets which cater primarily to what the parties have termed the Cuban refugee trade in the United States.

PROPRIETY OF SUMMARY JUDGMENT

The federal remedy provided for in the Trademark Act is, of course, not plenary. Nonetheless, neither side herein contends that there are any disputed factual issues for resolution by the Court nor have defendants presented a substantial factual question to preclude granting of the relief sought, and since the present record, as embodied in the revised proposed pretrial order and approved by both sides, furnishes ample basis for the conclusions hereafter stated, plaintiff is entitled, as a matter of law, to summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. James Burrough Limited v. Beef/Eaters Restaurants, Inc., 272 F.Supp. 489, 490 (N.D.Ga.1967), affirmed 398 F.2d 637, 639 (5th Cir. 1968). Venetianaire Corp. of America v. A & P Import Co., 302 F.Supp. 156, 158 (S.D.N.Y.1969).

LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION

The gravamen of plaintiffs action, like all trademark eases, is that defendants’ use of their mark on a product related to and closely identified with plaintiff’s cosmetic and toiletry line creates a likelihood of confusion between the parties’ respective products in the minds of potential purchasers. 15 U.S. C. § 1114(1). Viewing the defendants’ trademark in its entirety and in comparison with plaintiff’s marks, the Court concludes that use of the surname “JOHNSON” and style “JOHNSON LABORATORIES” to indicate the brand and source of defendants’ product in a type face identical to that used in plaintiff’s trademarks likely will create among potential purchasers the commercial impression that defendants’ cologne water is one of the many items in plaintiff’s broad line of cosmetic and toiletry products. Likelihood of confusion, however, is to be determined' not alone from visual comparison of the trademarks in question, but also from significant extrinsic facts such as the type of goods, Sleeper Lounge Co. v. Bell Mfg. Co., 253 F.2d 720, 722, 723 (9th Cir. 1958), classes of prospective purchasers, Paul Sachs Originals Co. v. Sachs, 325 F.2d 212 (9th Cir. 1963), competitive relationship of the parties, L. Nachman & Son, Inc. v. E. Lasner, Inc., 263 F.2d 342, 344 (C.C.P.A.1959), trend towards expansion in the relevant trade, industry or line of merchandising, Avon Shoe Co. v. David Crystal, Inc., 171 F.Supp. 293, 298, 299 (S.D.N.Y.1959) and other facts which must, in order to justify the relief here sought, give rise to something more than a remote possibility of confusion, Fram Corp. v. Boyd, 230 F.2d 931, 934 (5th Cir. 1956).

CLASSES OF PURCHASERS AND COMPETITIVE RELATIONSHIP

Defendants lay great stress on the fact that their particular cologne water is explicitly imitative of a similar product formerly marketed in Cuba under the name Johnson and that defendants limit their sales to the submarket of Cuban immigrants and refugees residing in the United States. Plaintiff correctly argues, on the other hand, that prior use of a trademark in a foreign country does not entitle its owner to claim exclusive trademark rights in the United States against one who, in good faith, has adopted a like trademark of the same character prior to entry of the foreigner into the domestic market, Le Blume Import Co. v. Coty, 293 F. 344 *64 (2d Cir. 1923), Coty, Inc. v. Parfums De Grande Luxe, 298 F. 865 (2d Cir. 1924), cert. denied, 266 U.S. 609, 45 S.Ct. 94, 69 L.Ed. 466 (1925), hence, the fact of prior use in Cuba of a trademark similar to defendants’ is not, itself, a defense to this action. Similarly, the rights of one who has, in good faith, appropriated a trademark in a foreign country are not affected by the fact that such appropriation, if made in the United States, would have been an infringement of the trademark of a prior user. Greyhound Corp. v. Goberna, 37 F.Supp. 171 (S.D.Fla.1941). Only as it may negate the likelihood of confusion does the fact of prior use in Cuba become material to this action.

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339 F. Supp. 60, 172 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 35, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10952, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-johnson-v-diaz-cacd-1971.