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

District Court, S.D. Florida·Decided February 24, 2020·No. 1:20-cv-20515·Unknown

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

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

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

San Antonio Winery, Inc. v. Enovation Brands, Inc. (San Antonio Winery, Inc. v. Enovation Brands, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Levine v. Comcoa Ltd.
70 F.3d 1191 (Eleventh Circuit, 1995)
Jennifer Keeton v. Mary Jane Anderson-Wiley
664 F.3d 865 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
Securities & Exchange Commission v. Comcoa Ltd.
887 F. Supp. 1521 (S.D. Florida, 1995)
Hbp, Inc. v. American Marine Holdings, Inc.
290 F. Supp. 2d 1320 (M.D. Florida, 2003)
Choice Hotels International, Inc. v. Kaushik
147 F. Supp. 2d 1242 (M.D. Alabama, 2000)
Ambrit, Inc. v. Kraft, Inc.
812 F.2d 1531 (Eleventh Circuit, 1986)