Trader Joe's Co. v. Michael Hallatt

835 F.3d 960, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15792, 2016 WL 4488009
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedAugust 26, 2016
Docket14-35035
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 835 F.3d 960 (Trader Joe's Co. v. Michael Hallatt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Trader Joe's Co. v. Michael Hallatt, 835 F.3d 960, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15792, 2016 WL 4488009 (9th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

CHRISTEN, Circuit Judge:

This trademark infringement case turns on the extraterritorial .reach of the Lan-ham Act. It is uncontested that Defendant Michael Norman Hallatt purchases Trader Joe’s-branded goods in Washington state, transports them to Canada, and resells them there in a store he designed to mimic *963 a Trader Joe’s store. Trader Joe’s sued for trademark infringement and unfair competition under the Lanham Act and Washington state law. The district court recognized that the Lanham Act can apply to conduct that occurs abroad, but it dismissed the Lanham Act claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction after concluding that Hallatt’s allegedly infringing activity takes place in Canada, and that Trader Joe’s did not adequately explain how Hallatt’s activity impacts American commerce. The district court dismissed Trader Joe’s’ state law claims for similar reasons.

We affirm in part and reverse in part. Consistent with recent case law from the Supreme Court and our court, we hold that the extraterritorial reach of the Lan-ham Act raises a question relating to the merits of a trademark claim, not to federal courts’ subject-matter jurisdiction. On the merits, we conclude that Trader Joe’s alleges a nexus between Hallatt’s conduct and American commerce sufficient to warrant extraterritorial, application of the Lanham Act. We therefore reverse in part. But because Trader Joe’s does not allege trademark dilution in Washington or harm to a Washington resident or business, we affirm the court’s dismissal of the state law claims.

BACKGROUND

The complaint alleges that Trader Joe’s is a well-known American grocery store that sells specialty goods at reasonable prices from its distinctive, South Pacific-themed stores. 1 It is headquartered in Monrovia, California, but it operates hundreds of stores throughout the United States, including more than a dozen stores in Washington. About eighty percent of the goods Trader Joe’s sells in its stores are Trader Joe’s-branded products that are available only at Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s does not franchise its intellectual property or license others to sell its products. Trader Joe’s maintains strict quality control standards when transporting and storing perishable goods to protect the safety of its customers and to ensure that Trader Joe’s stores sell only fresh, high-quality goods. Trader Joe’s has rejected offers from third parties to enter into franchise agreements, in part because of the difficulty of “ensuring that these third parties will ship, handle, and store food products pursuant to Trader Joe’s exacting standards.” Trader Joe’s does not operate outside of the United States, but Canadian consumers regularly travel across the border to shop at Trader Joe’s stores located in northern Washington.

Trader Joe’s owns several federally registered and common-law trademarks associated with its stores and products. Its family of marks includes a trademark for the red, stylized “Trader Joe’s” text, see Fig. 1, and numerous trademarks for Trader Joe’s-branded products. Trader Joe’s also alleges that it has trade dress protection for its South Pacific-themed store design. See Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc., 505 U.S. 763, 775-76, 112 S.Ct. 2753, 120 L.Ed.2d 615 (1992) (recognizing that distinctive store design is a form of trade dress). Trader Joe’s carefully cultivates its brand through advertising, promotion, and word-of-mouth referrals, and, according to the complaint, its trademarks and trade dress “have come to symbolize extraordinary goodwill and have achieved great fame both within and out *964 side the United States” due to these efforts. This fame and popularity has generated substantial domestic and international demand for Trader Joe’s products.

Fig. 1:

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In October 2011, staff members at the Bellingham Trader Joe’s store noticed something odd about, one of their customers: Canadian resident Michael Norman Hallatt visited the store several times per week to buy large quantities of Trader Joe’s products. 2 When questioned, Hallatt admitted that he drives the goods he purchases across the Canadian border where he distributes them to Canadian customers. Trader Joe’s later learned from one of its Canadian customers that Hallatt opened a store in Canada named Transil-vania Trading (which he later renamed “Pirate Joe’s”) where he resells, at substantially inflated prices, Trader Joe’s goods purchased in Washington. Trader Joe’s alleges that Hallatt uses its intellectual property to solicit business for Pirate Joe’s: He advertises his wares with Trader Joe’s trademarks, operates a website accessible from the United States, displays an exterior sign at Pirate Joe’s that uses a font similar to the trademarked “Trader Joe’s” insignia, Fig. 2, and designed the Pirate Joe’s store to mimic Trader Joe’s trade dress. Hallatt sells perishable goods at Pirate Joe’s that he does not transport or store in a manner consistent with the strict quality control standards used by Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s has received at least one complaint from a consumer who became sick after eating a Trader Joe’s-branded product she purchased from Pirate Joe’s.

Fig. 2:

Trader Joe’s told Hallatt that it does not sanction his activity and demanded that he stop reselling Trader Joe’s products from Pirate Joe’s. Hallatt refused. Trader Joe’s declined to serve Hallatt as a customer, but Hallatt, undeterred, began donning “disguises to shop at Trader Joe’s without *965 detection” and driving “to Seattle, Portland, and even California to purchase TRADER JOE’S-branded products and evade Trader Joe’s refusal to sell to them.” The complaint also alleges that Hallatt pays third parties in Washington to buy Trader Joe’s goods on his behalf. On appeal, Trader Joe’s contends that Hallatt accomplishes his scheme in part because he is a United States Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR), an immigration status that enables him to live and work legally in the United States. All told, Hallatt has spent more than $350,000 purchasing Trader Joe’s products to resell in Canada.

Trader Joe’s sued Hallatt (doing business as Pirate Joe’s) for trademark infringement in the Western District of Washington, invoking that court’s federal question and supplemental jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1367. Trader Joe’s alleged that Hallatt violated federal and state trademark and unfair competition laws by misleading consumers “into falsely believing that Pirate Joe’s and/or Transilvania Trading have been authorized or approved by Trader Joe’s,” displaying Trader Joe’s trademarks and mimicking Trader Joe’s trade dress, and reselling Trader Joe’s goods without authorization and without adhering to Trader Joe’s’ strict quality control practices. According to Trader Joe’s, this conduct dilutes its trademarks, confuses consumers, and damages Trader Joe’s’ reputation by associating it with high-cost, reduced-quality goods.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
835 F.3d 960, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15792, 2016 WL 4488009, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trader-joes-co-v-michael-hallatt-ca9-2016.