Selfway, Inc. v. Travelers Petroleum, Inc.

579 F.2d 75, 198 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 271, 1978 CCPA LEXIS 281
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJune 15, 1978
DocketAppeal No. 77-609
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 579 F.2d 75 (Selfway, Inc. v. Travelers Petroleum, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Selfway, Inc. v. Travelers Petroleum, Inc., 579 F.2d 75, 198 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 271, 1978 CCPA LEXIS 281 (ccpa 1978).

Opinions

RICH, Judge.

This appeal is from the decision of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), 195 USPQ 578, modified, 196 USPQ 266 (1977), ordering cancellation of Registration No. 961,776, issued June 19, 1973, to .Selfway, Inc., for the service mark SELFWAY for automobile service station services. We affirm.

Summarizing the generally undisputed facts detailed in the opinion of the TTAB, 195 USPQ at 578-80, Travelers Petroleum, Inc. (Travelers), a South Carolina corporation, petitioned to cancel the aforementioned registration of Selfway, Inc., a Georgia corporation, on November 9, 1973, less than five months after its issuance. Travelers alleged and proved actual use of SELFWAY for self-service gasoline station services in South Carolina commencing on June 3,1971, nearly ten months prior to the proven first use of the mark by Selfway, Inc., in Louisiana on March 31, 1972. The asserted ground for cancellation was § 2(d) of the Trademark Act of 1946, as amended, hereinafter “Lanham Act,” (15 U.S.C. § 1052(d)).1 Likelihood of confusion arising from unrestricted simultaneous use of the mark not being seriously contested, the issue was reduced to priority of use, complicated somewhat by the preincorporation activities of the parties’ presidents, which we now relate.

From 1969 until March of 1971, both petitioner’s president, Mr. Brandt, and respondent’s president, Mr. Pesson, where employed by Tenneco Oil Company in the development of a self-service gasoline station business. While so employed, Pesson formulated plans to start a similar business of his own and, in connection therewith, prepared an investment brochure entitled “SelfWay Stations.” The brochure, introduced in evidence as Respondent’s Exhibit 1, characterizes itself as “a proposal for a company that will engage exclusively in the self-service gasoline business” and consists [78]*78of 16 typewritten pages containing tables and charts illustrating the expected capital requirements and returns. The term “Self-Way” appears only on the title page, all subsequent references being to “the company.” Twenty copies of the brochure were given to various prospective investors.

Toward the end of 1970, Pesson disclosed his plans to Brandt. The latter was shown, but not given, a copy of the brochure. Brandt left Tenneco in early 1971, formed petitioner corporation, and commenced use of SELFWAY in South Carolina where all subsequent uses have occurred.

Pesson left Tenneco in early 1972, formed respondent corporation, and commenced use of SELFWAY in Louisiana in March of that year, later expanding on the wholesale level into Florida and Georgia. After respondent’s first use of the mark, Pesson heard rumors of Brandt’s activities in South Carolina, whereupon the registration in issue was sought and issued.

On the above facts, the TTAB ordered respondent’s territorially-unrestricted registration cancelled, holding that likelihood of confusion from contemporaneous use of the mark in the same geographic area had been conceded and that Travelers had proven prior service-mark usage of SELFWAY.

Respondent, appellant here, asserted before the TTAB, and reasserts here, three arguments for a contrary result, to wit:

(1) Pesson’s use of SELFWAY on the investment brochure was use “analogous” to service-mark usage which can be tacked on to respondent’s first actual use, thereby constituting Selfway, Inc., the prior user on this record;

(2) Failing argument (1), Brandt’s knowledge of Pesson’s activities and intentions with respect to SELFWAY equitably precludes a valid adoption of the mark by Travelers, again constituting Selfway, Inc., the prior user on this record; and

(3) Failing argument (2), respondent’s registration should have been ordered geographically restricted instead of cancelled in its entirety because petitioner’s rights in the mark are, at best, those of a concurrent user; in other words, respondent, as prior registrant, should be entitled to retain national registration rights except for areas where petitioner actually used the mark prior to issuance of the registration, i. e., South Carolina.

With respect to the first argument, the TTAB, citing two of its own precedents, found that Pesson’s brochure, being directed to prospective investors rather than prospective purchasers, and being preliminary even to the capitalization of the company, did not create any awareness of the SELF-WAY mark in relation to the business he hoped to establish or the services he hoped to render. As such, the use of SELFWAY on the brochure was held not to be use “analogous” to service-mark usage.

The TTAB disposed of the second argument by noting that Pesson’s disclosures to Brandt were unrestricted, as were the disclosures to other prospective investors, thereby precluding protection based on confidentiality of disclosure or trade secrecy. Further, no fiduciary relationship, e. g., employer-employee, was found to exist between the two men from which a legally cognizable impediment to Brandt’s appropriation of the SELFWAY mark might arise. In view of its disposition of respondent’s first argument, the TTAB concluded that petitioner’s adoption of SELFWAY had occurred at a time when respondent had not yet entered the field. Accordingly, the TTAB found that, in this case, there was no prior user of which petitioner could have had the requisite disabling knowledge, thereby distinguishing respondent’s cited authorities.

As to the third argument, the TTAB simply noted that the rights of the parties to concurrent use registrations were not properly in issue in a cancellation proceeding, such issues being properly resolved only in a concurrent use proceeding geared to developing the relevant evidence. In this regard, the TTAB relied upon this court’s decision in Hollowform, Inc. v. Delma Aeh, 515 F.2d 1174, 185 USPQ 790 (Cust. & Pat. App.1975).

[79]*79OPINION

We are in general agreement with the manner in which the TTAB disposed of the three issues raised here on appeal in its ■published opinion and shall elaborate thereon, in varying degrees with respect to the three issues, only for purposes of clarification.

Appellant-respondent now relies on this court’s decision in Jim Dandy Co. v. Martha White Foods, Inc., 458 F.2d 1397, 59 CCPA 1016,173 USPQ 673 (1973) to support its first argument, that the brochure use was “analogous” to service-mark usage and can be tacked on to the first actual use. It is also alleged that the TTAB erred in failing to recognize that those to whom the brochure was shown, characterized in the opinion below as prospective investors, were also prospective customers. Even conceding the latter point, appellee-petitioner correctly points out that Jim Dandy involved a use in connection with an ongoing business.

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579 F.2d 75, 198 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 271, 1978 CCPA LEXIS 281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/selfway-inc-v-travelers-petroleum-inc-ccpa-1978.