Marie-Binucci v. Adam

907 F. Supp. 29, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18830, 1995 WL 761335
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedDecember 19, 1995
DocketCiv. A. No. 94-12243-EFH
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 907 F. Supp. 29 (Marie-Binucci v. Adam) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marie-Binucci v. Adam, 907 F. Supp. 29, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18830, 1995 WL 761335 (D. Mass. 1995).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

HARRINGTON, District Judge.

This case is before the Court on the Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment on the plaintiffs’ first two causes of action alleging violation of the Lanham Act, Title 15, United States Code, Section 1125(a), and on a third cause of action sounding in unfair competition. The defendants also move to dismiss the fourth cause of action, alleging a false accounting under state law, on the ground of lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

In a motion for summary judgment, the Court reviews the facts in a light most favorable to the non-moving party. Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 158-59, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1608-10, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970). The Plaintiff, Jean Marie Binucci, is a French citizen who lives in the Principality of Monaco. He is a commercial printer who owns Imprimerie Binucci, a specialty printing company, also located in Monaco. Mr. Binucci created “Binuscan,” an automated color correction and separation computer software program. The Plaintiff, Binuscan, Inc., is a New York corporation whose sole shareholder is Mr. Binucci. Its principal business is the development and marketing of the “Binuscan” product in North America. The Defendant, George Adam, lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and operates a business called “Monaco Systems, Inc.,” a North Andover, Massachusetts corporation organized under the laws of this state.

On January 28, 1993, Plaintiff Binucci entered into a contract with the Defendant Adam and a Mr. Erie Wilsterman. This written agreement stated that Mr. Adam and Mr. Wilsterman would have exclusive rights to distribute “Binuscan” software in North America. Eventually, this agreement proved unworkable for all the parties involved. On or before September 27, 1993, the parties agreed to terminate the distribution agreement and signed a written termination agreement on February 4, 1994.

At some time either before or after the signing of the termination agreement,1 Defendant Adam developed a commercial automated color correction and separation computer program of his own called “MonaeoCo-lor.” This product competes with “Binuscan” for business in the commercial printing software marketplace. The plaintiffs assert that the product “MonacoColor” is derived from “Binuscan” and its name was intended to deceive consumers into thinking that it was a successor to “Binuscan.”

Mr. Binucci and Binuscan, Inc., brought this action against Mr. Adam and Monaco Systems, Inc., alleging four causes of action. The first two causes of action allege infringement of an unregistered trade name under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a). Count III alleges unfair competition. These three causes of action arise from Mr. Adam’s and Monaco Systems, Inc.’s, use of the word [31]*31“Monaco” and the use of “Monaco” in the name of the “MonacoColor” product and in the name of Monaco Systems, Inc., itself. Plaintiffs claim a proteetible interest in the name “Monaco” because Mr. Binucci resides there and “Binuscan” is manufactured there. The fourth cause of action alleges a false accounting concerning the prior distribution relationship between the plaintiffs and the defendants.

The Court may grant summary judgment if no “genuine issue” of material fact exists and the evidence entitles the moving party to judgment as a matter of law. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2511-12, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A moving party must show that “there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case.” Celotex v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The burden then shifts to the opponent of the motion and that party must establish the existence of a genuine issue for trial. Brennan v. Hendrigan, 888 F.2d 189, 191 (1st Cir.1989).

Title 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a) prohibits anyone from using:

... in connection with any goods or services, or any container for goods, uses in commerce any word, term, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, or any false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact, which ... is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake ... with another person ... or commercial activities by another person

In Boston Beer Co. v. Slesar Bros. Brewing Co., 9 F.3d 175 (1st Cir.1993), the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit examining a Section 1125(a) claim stated:

A court’s inquiry into whether a term merits trademark protection starts with the classification of that term along a spectrum of “distinctiveness.” At one of the spectrum there are generic terms that have passed into common usage to identify a product, such as aspirin, and can never be protected. In the middle of this spectrum are so-called descriptive terms, such as a geographic term, which can be protected, but only if it has acquired ‘secondary meaning’ by which consumers associate it with a particular producer or source. At the other end of the spectrum, there are suggestive, arbitrary and fanciful terms that can be protected without proof of secondary meaning. These terms are considered “inherently distinctive.”

Id. at 180 (emphasis added, citations omitted). Monaco is a geographic word, and, therefore, it has descriptive term status requiring secondary meaning in order to warrant trademark protection.2

The First Circuit Court of Appeals has defined secondary meaning as:

... a word’s, or a sign’s, ability to tell the public that the word or sign serves a special trademark function, namely, that it denotes a product or service that comes from a particular source. Words and phrases, in ordinary, non-trademark, use normally pick out, or refer to, particular individual items that exhibit the characteristics that the word or phrase connotes (without specific reference to the item’s source). Accordingly, secondary meaning has been established in a geographically descriptive mark where the mark no longer causes the public to associate the goods with a particular place, but to associate the goods with a particular source.

Boston Beer Co., 9 F.3d at 181 (citations omitted) “A trademark that is primarily geographically descriptive must have acquired secondary meaning to invoke the protection of the Lanham Act.” Burke-Parsons-Bowlby v. Appalachian Log Homes, 871 F.2d 590, 595 (6th Cir.1989). Proof of secondary meaning requires “vigorous evidentiary requirements” and the party seeking protection of the mark bears the burden of proving that secondary meaning has attached. Boston [32]*32Beer Co., 9 F.3d at 181.

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907 F. Supp. 29, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18830, 1995 WL 761335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marie-binucci-v-adam-mad-1995.