Tamko Roofing Products, Inc. v. Ideal Roofing Co.

282 F.3d 23, 61 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1865, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 3578, 2002 WL 338112
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedMarch 7, 2002
DocketNos. 01-1382, 01-2273
StatusPublished
Cited by78 cases

This text of 282 F.3d 23 (Tamko Roofing Products, Inc. v. Ideal Roofing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tamko Roofing Products, Inc. v. Ideal Roofing Co., 282 F.3d 23, 61 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1865, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 3578, 2002 WL 338112 (1st Cir. 2002).

Opinion

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

Tamko Roofing Products, Inc. won its trademark infringement case against Ideal Roofing Company, Ltd. after a six-day jury trial. The district court awarded Ideal’s profits to Tamko, ordered Ideal to pay Tamko’s attorneys’ fees, which amounted to a sum larger than the profits, and is[27]*27sued a permanent injunction. Ideal now appeals each of these district court actions.

We affirm. We reject Ideal’s argument that bad faith or fraud is a necessary condition to an award of attorneys’ fees under section 35 of the Lanham Act; willful conduct may be sufficient when the trial court takes into account all the facts and equities of the case. We reject Ideal’s proposed limitation on the availability of an accounting of defendant’s profits as a remedy for trademark infringement. The injunction, which covers a broader range of marks than those Tamko has registered with the United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), is warranted by the “safe distance rule.”

I.

The facts are described “as a jury might have found them, consistent with the record but in the light most favorable to the verdict.” Grajales-Romero v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 194 F.3d 288, 292 (1st Cir.1999).

Tamko and Ideal each manufacture and sell roofing products. Tamko manufactures and sells asphalt roofing products, including shingles, in the United States and Canada. Ideal is based in Ottawa, Canada, and manufactures metal roofing and siding products, which it sells in Canada and the United States.

Since 1975, Tamko has been using the trademark “Heritage” in its roofing products business. By 1997, when Ideal began to use the Heritage mark, Tamko had registered ten marks in the Heritage family with the USPTO, including “The American Heritage Series” mark, and two Heritage family trademarks in Canada. Tamko has vigorously defended the Heritage marks, and has successfully enforced its trademark rights.1

In April 1997, Ideal selected the trademark “Heritage Series” for hidden fastener metal roofing panels, a new product it introduced to the market later that year. Ideal’s “Heritage Series” mark used very similar cursive script to Tamko’s “The American Heritage Series” mark. Ideal made the selection through a four-member executive committee: Marcel Laplante (President), René Laplante (Vice President), Pierre Tessier (Sales Manager), and Mark Lebreque (Quebec City Office Manager).

Before Ideal adopted the Heritage Series mark, Tessier attended several roofing trade shows where Tamko prominently displayed its Heritage mark. Ideal hired an advertising agency, Innovacom, to help in the selection and marketing of the new mark. Although the agency usually recommends a trademark search to its clients before they adopt a new mark, René La-plante of Ideal decided against conducting such a search through the agency, an attorney, or Ideal itself. Two other trademarks considered by Ideal were “Carriage” and “Royal Albert,” both of which are similar to marks owned by other manufacturers in the roofing industry: Certain-Teed uses the mark “Carriage House,” and IKO uses “Royal Victorian.”

Although Tamko and Ideal produce and sell different types of roofing products, their products — asphalt and metal roofing respectively — are both appropriate for steep-slope roofs. They compete directly in the roofing industry market, particularly in the northeastern United States. For example, Ideal belongs to the Metal Roofing Alliance, which, among other things, [28]*28attempts to persuade homeowners to install metal roofing instead of asphalt shingles. Ideal also tried to persuade consumers to use metal roofing rather than asphalt shingles in its brochure called “The Smartest Looking House.”

When Tamko discovered that Ideal was using the Heritage mark for its new product line, its president, David Humphreys, wrote to Marcel Laplante on March 9, 1999. In the letter, Humphreys discussed the importance of the mark to Tamko, expressed his concern that Ideal’s use of the mark would cause “confusion in the marketplace,” and asked Ideal to “cease and desist all use of HERITAGE in connection with its building products.” When Humphreys did not receive a response, he sent another letter to Ideal on March 26, 1999, demanding a response and warning Ideal that if Tamko did not receive a response, it would have “no choice but to seek legal help to resolve this matter.” Ideal responded to the second letter, but the companies could not negotiate a mutually agreeable phase out period in which Ideal would stop using the Heritage mark. Ideal wanted a two-year period, while Tamko claimed that a few months would be sufficient.

Tamko gave Ideal notice that it was going to file a suit against it, and that the USPTO had previously rejected another metal roofing manufacturer’s application for the Heritage mark. In response, Ideal suggested a one-year phase out as a compromise.

In August 1999, Tamko filed suit against Ideal for trademark infringement in violation of section 32(1) (a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1114(l)(a) (2000).2 On November 3, 1999, Tamko filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin Ideal from using the Heritage mark until the trial resolved the infringement issue. The district court granted the preliminary injunction on February 29, 2000, adopting the report and recommendation from the magistrate judge, who was briefed and held an evidentiary hearing on the issue.

Despite the preliminary injunction, Ideal continued to use the Heritage mark in its brochures and on its web site. Ideal distributed brochures containing the Heritage mark at two trade shows which took place in March 2000 in the United States. Ideal also did not modify its web site which contained several references to the Heritage mark. As a result, on March 16, 2000, Tamko moved for contempt. After a hearing, the magistrate judge issued another report and recommendation that “Ideal should be held in contempt,” finding Ideal distributed brochures that contained the Heritage mark at a trade show two weeks after the preliminary injunction issued, and “intentionally kept the ‘Heritage’ mark on its web site” after the injunction issued. The district court adopted the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and held Ideal in contempt on May 26, 2000. The contempt order provided that Ideal would be fined $200 for each day of noncompliance, starting on May 29, 2000. Ideal was fined $3,000 for its failure to comply with the contempt order until June 13, 2000.

In advance of trial, Ideal filed a motion in limine to preclude Tamko “from making reference in the presence of the jury to the Preliminary Injunction Order issued in this case.” The issue was resolved by an agreement to a stipulated instruction to the jury. The instruction given to the jury at the start of the trial on May 16, 2000, [29]*29was “after this case was filed in this court and pending the outcome of the case, the Court on February [2]9,3 the year 2000, ordered Ideal to stop using the trademark in question in order to preserve the status quo pending the outcome of the case.”

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282 F.3d 23, 61 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1865, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 3578, 2002 WL 338112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tamko-roofing-products-inc-v-ideal-roofing-co-ca1-2002.