San Antonio Winery, Inc. v. Enovation Brands, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedFebruary 24, 2020
Docket1:20-cv-20515
StatusUnknown

This text of San Antonio Winery, Inc. v. Enovation Brands, Inc. (San Antonio Winery, Inc. v. Enovation Brands, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
San Antonio Winery, Inc. v. Enovation Brands, Inc., (S.D. Fla. 2020).

Opinion

United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida

San Antonio Winery, Inc. and ) Merritt Estate Winery, Inc., ) Plaintiffs, ) ) Civil Action No. 20-20515-Civ-Scola v. ) ) Enovation Brands, Inc., Defendant. )

Order Granting, in Part, Expedited Motion for Temporary Restraining Order Plaintiffs San Antonio Winery, Inc. (“San Antonio”) and Merritt Estate Winery (“Merritt”) (collectively, the “Wineries”) seek an expedited ruling on their motion for a temporary restraining order against Defendant Enovation Brands, Inc.’s (“Enovation”), enjoining Enovation from selling wine, the packaging of which the Wineries say infringes the trade dress and marks of their own wines. (Pls.’ Mot., ECF No. 19.) Enovation responded in opposition to the Wineries’ motion (Def.’s Resp., ECF No. 29) and the Court thereafter heard the parties during oral argument on February 20, 2020. After careful review, the Court grants in part and denies in part the Wineries’ motion (ECF No. 19) for the reasons that follow. 1. Factual Background1 San Antonio Winery has previously produced and now currently imports, and distributes the Stella Rosa family of Italian, low-alcohol, sweet or semi- sweet, semi-sparkling, wines. San Antonio has multiple federal trademark registrations protecting the Stella Rosa brand including incontestable U.S. Trademark Registration No. 4,000,417 (the “‘417 Registration”) for the word mark “STELLA ROSA” and incontestable U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,663,013 (the “‘013 Registration”) for the mark “STELLA ROSA” and design for use in connection with wine. Stella Rosa wines have won many awards and accolades, including the “Hot Brand” award from Impact magazine each year for the last six years. (Riboli Decl. ¶6, ECF No. 19-3.) From 2004 on, San Antonio has used the Stella Rosa mark in combination with what the Wineries describe as “distinctive, unique packaging to identify its wine.” (Pls.’ Mot. at 5.)

1 The facts set forth below are based only on the record submitted by the parties thus far and without the benefit of further discovery or the testing of evidence through cross examination. Unless noted, these facts are, at least at this stage of the litigation, undisputed. The Stella Rosa brand has become the number one imported Italian wine in the United States. (Pls.” Compl. at 9 3.) The brand is sold in supermarkets, big box stores—like Costco—and mass retailers—like Target. (Riboli Decl. at 410.) In the last two years alone, San Antonio has spent more than $30 million in marketing its Stella Rosa wine brand. Of concern here are two Stella Rosa wine varietals: “Stella Rosso” and “Moscato D’Asti.” Combined, these two varietals had sales of over $60 million in 2019. Enovation, under the name “Bella Rosa,” plans to distribute wine through Target that the Wineries believe infringes the trade dress of these two varietals. Depictions of the bottles, side by side with their alleged infringers, are reproduced below.

| □ | Arma, Mme,

ff i ‘ ; Peas STE[LA ROSA . Pog Loy ie STELLA ROSSO BR MOSCATO DAST BELLA Se € RC 6 ROSA IL CONTE □□ CORTE ae ll ey SE

All four offerings are in the same wine subcategory: inexpensive, sparkling, low alcohol, Italian, and sweet or semi-sweet. While the trade dresses exhibit marked differences, notable similarities are also apparent: the word “ROSA” printed in red; the comparable words “STELLA” and “BELLA” printed in black; red or maroon screw caps; gold accents on the screw caps; designs or emblems arranged on the glass directly above the labels; designs or emblems arranged on the labels that mirror the designs or emblems in the glass, directly above the

marks; off-white label backgrounds; and the varietal names printed below the marks. As for Merritt, it has been operating a winery in upstate New York since 1976. In 1984 it began offering a red wine under the name Bella Rosa. Over the last three decades Bella Rosa has been a Merritt Winery best seller and has won numerous prestigious awards including silver and double gold, in 2018 and 2017, respectively, in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. In using the Bella Rosa mark, Merritt, by agreement with San Antonio, always includes “Merritt Winery” prominently on its label. Enovation, in contrast, only uses the mark Bella Rosa, without associating it with a particular winery or distributor. 2. Legal Standard To obtain a temporary restraining order, a plaintiff must demonstrate that: (1) it has a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of its claim; (2) it will suffer irreparable injury unless the injunction is issued; (3) the threatened injury to it outweighs the possible injury that the injunction may cause the defendant; and (4) if issued, the injunction would not disserve the public interest. Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley, 664 F.3d 865, 868 (11th Cir. 2011). 3. Analysis At this early stage of the litigation, the Court finds, on the limited record before it, that the Wineries have shown (1) they are likely to succeed on the merits of San Antonio’s trade dress claims; (2) San Antonio will suffer irreparable injury unless the restraining order is issued; (3) San Antonio’s threatened injury outweighs the possible injury that the injunction may cause Enovation; and (4) the relief sought will serve the public interest. On the other hand, the Court is not persuaded that the Wineries have a substantial likelihood of success with respect to Merritt’s trademark claim in the Bella Rosa mark. A. The Wineries have demonstrated that San Antonio is likely to succeed on the merits of its trade dress claim. To prevail on San Antonio’s trade dress infringement claim, under § 43(a) of the Lanham Act, the Wineries must establish three elements: (1) that San Antonio’s trade dress “is inherently distinctive or has acquired secondary meaning,” (2) that San Antonio’s trade dress “is primarily non-functional,” and (3) Enovation’s trade dress “is confusingly similar.” AmBrit, Inc. v. Kraft, Inc., 812 F.2d 1531, 1535 (11th Cir. 1986). “‘Trade dress’ involves the total image of a product and may include features such as size, shape, color or color combinations, texture, graphics, or even particular sales techniques.” John H. Harland Co. v. Clarke Checks, Inc., 711 F.2d 966, 980 (11th Cir. 1983). These features must be considered together and not in isolation. Id. (citation omitted). There appears to be no real dispute about the non-functional nature of the Stella Rosa trade dress. The Court therefore focuses only on the first and third elements. (1) Distinctiveness Regarding the first element, the Wineries point to Stella Rosa’s fifteen years of sales, significant marketing expenditures, numerous awards, and its status as the number one imported Italian wine in the United States in support of its distinctiveness. The Wineries also point out the unique arrangement of elements comprising the trade dress of Stella Rosa’s products: the maroon or red screw caps; the gold accents printed on the screw caps; the crown design in the glass, above the bottles’ labels; the echo of this crown emblem on the label itself, above the “STELLA ROSA” mark; “STELLA” printed in black; juxtaposed with “ROSA” printed in red; the off-white label color; and the printing of the varietal below the “STELLA ROSA” mark. In opposition, Enovation merely points out that (1) these elements, in isolation, or even in some combination of a subset of them, are shared by dozens or hundreds of other wines and (2) crowns should be considered generic. (Def.’s Resp.

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San Antonio Winery, Inc. v. Enovation Brands, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/san-antonio-winery-inc-v-enovation-brands-inc-flsd-2020.