Tambrands, Inc. v. Warner-Lambert Co.

673 F. Supp. 1190, 56 U.S.L.W. 2148, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5785
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJune 29, 1987
Docket86 Civ. 7122 (MGC)
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 673 F. Supp. 1190 (Tambrands, Inc. v. Warner-Lambert Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tambrands, Inc. v. Warner-Lambert Co., 673 F. Supp. 1190, 56 U.S.L.W. 2148, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5785 (S.D.N.Y. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

CEDARBAUM, District Judge.

This case involves advertising claims for home pregnancy test kits (“Kits”). Tamb-rands, Inc. (“Tambrands”) filed a complaint against defendants Warner-Lambert Company (“Warner-Lambert”) and J. Walter Thompson U.S.A., Inc. (“Thompson”) alleging that defendants’ advertising violated the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125 (1982 & West Supp.1987), 1 and sections 349 and 350 *1192 of the New York General Business Law (McKinney 1968 and West Supp.1987). Defendants asserted counterclaims alleging that Tambrands’ advertising violated the same statutory provisions. Tambrands requested damages and preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, and defendants sought a declaratory judgment and injunc-tive relief. 2 With the consent of the parties, the preliminary and permanent injunction hearings were consolidated, and a bench trial was conducted on the merits. The parties explicitly waived a jury trial on the damage claims. This opinion constitutes my findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a).

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Tambrands is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Lake Success, New York. Tambrands manufactures, markets and distributes feminine hygiene products, cosmetics, and over-the-counter diagnostic products. (Stipulated Facts, ¶ 2). Since July 1985, Tambrands has marketed Kits under the name “First Response.”

Thompson, a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in New York City, is an advertising agency that helped Warner-Lambert develop the challenged advertising. (Stipulated Facts, U 4).

Warner-Lambert is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Morris Plains, New Jersey. Warner-Lambert manufactures, markets and distributes prescription and non-prescription health care and other consumer products. (Stipulated Facts, 113).

In 1985, Warner-Lambert marketed Kits under the name “E.P.T. Plus” (“Original E.P.T. Plus”), (Stipulated Facts, II3), and began marketing Kits under the name “New E.P.T. Plus.” The challenged advertising is principally for the latter product, which is a version of the former product. Tambrands, Warner-Lambert, and several other companies directly compete in the Kit market.

Kits permit women to determine if they are pregnant by analyzing their urine to detect the presence of human chorionic go-nadatropon (“HCG”), a hormone which appears in the urine and blood of pregnant women shortly after a fertilized ovum is implanted. (Stipulated Facts, II5). “Sensitivity,” which is measured in milli International Units per milliliter (“mIUs/ml”), is the minimum concentration of HCG at which a particular Kit is designed to function reliably and accurately, and to produce a visible chemical reaction. (See Poirier Tr. at 212-13). 3 First Response has a laboratory sensitivity of 50 mlUs, and advertises the product for use on the expected day of menses (“Day Zero”). (Stipulated Facts, 1111). Warner-Lambert claims a sensitivity of 150 mIUs/ml for New E.P.T. Plus, and claims that the product can be used on Day 1. (Def. Contentions of Fact, WI12, 27, 29). The parties agree, for purposes of this action, that menses occurs on the fifteenth day after ovulation. (Fox Tr. at 89-90).

First Response, which uses a technology that differs from that used in New E.P.T. Plus, reacts to the presence of HCG in the urine by changing the color of a Kit solution from clear to blue. (Fox Tr. at 16). If the solution remains clear, the test is negative, i.e., the user tests as not pregnant. Tambrands claims that on Day Zero, First Response can produce positive and negative results within twenty minutes.

New E.P.T. Plus reacts to the presence of HCG in the urine by a gradual reduction *1193 of the color of a Kit solution from a deep red to a lighter pink or grey. (Clark Tr. at 680-81). New E.P.T. Plus indicates a non-pregnant result by no perceptible lightening in the color of the solution. The performance characteristics of New E.P.T. Plus and the manner in which defendants advertised them are disputed.

II. DISCUSSION

If an advertising claim is literally, explicitly or unambiguously false on its face, a court may enjoin the defendant from disseminating or otherwise using the claim, regardless of the claim’s effect on the consuming public. Coca-Cola Co. v. Tropicana Products, Inc., 690 F.2d 312, 317 (2d Cir.1982); Vidal Sassoon, Inc. v. Bristol Meyers Co., 661 F.2d 272, 277 (2d Cir.1981); American Brands, Inc. v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 413 F.Supp. 1352, 1356 (S.D.N.Y.1976). See also Cuisinarts, Inc. v. Robot-Coupe Int’l Corp., No. 81 Civ. 731 (S.D.N.Y. June 9, 1982) (finding that “material statements in the ad are facially false” “by necessary implication;” and, “the ad does not make the [facially false] statements in haec verba.”)

The principal advertising claim which plaintiff challenges is the claim that “in as fast as ten minutes” or “as soon as 10 minutes” a user will know for sure whether she is pregnant. This claim, which is stated in many variations throughout defendants’ advertising, 4 is accompanied by several other advertising sub-claims about which plaintiff complains, including the claims that New E.P.T. Plus is a one-step test, is the fastest test or fastest one-step test, and can be used on Day 1 in ten minutes.

In As Fast As Ten Minutes

Tambrands argues that this claim for New E.P.T. Plus is “explicitly” and “unambiguously” false because it states that New E.P.T. Plus is a ten-minute test, when in fact negative results cannot be confirmed until thirty minutes have elapsed. Tamb-rands contends that New E.P.T. Plus is, in truth, a thirty-minute test.

More than half of the women who purchase Kits want to know that they are not pregnant. (Akin Tr. at 450). It is not seriously disputed that a non-pregnant woman who takes the New E.P.T. Plus test will not know for certain within ten minutes that she is not pregnant. Defendants concede that non-pregnant women require thirty minutes to know for sure that they are not pregnant, regardless of the day on which they perform the test. Any pregnant or non-pregnant woman using the test must confirm the results at thirty minutes if no color change occurs within ten minutes. (Clark Tr. at 624). 5

Defendants argue that “positive results are generally, though not always, obtainable in 10 minutes,” and rely on a 1985 study conducted by Warner-Lambert (“Study”). (Def. Post-Trial Br. at 12).

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Bluebook (online)
673 F. Supp. 1190, 56 U.S.L.W. 2148, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5785, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tambrands-inc-v-warner-lambert-co-nysd-1987.