Results for international trademark

Meenaxi Enterprise, Inc. v. Coca-Cola Company

Case Number: CLB0508

Date: 06.29.2022

The territoriality doctrine does not apply to aspects of the Lanham Act in § 14(3) that are not concerned with the protection of trademark rights. Under § 14(3) of the Lanham Act, a cancellation challenge may be filed “by any person who believes that he is or will be damaged…by the registration of a mark.” Such causes of action “extend only to plaintiffs whose interest fall within the zone of interests protected by the law invoked,” which “requires an allegation of injury to a commercial interest in reputation or sales.” If a plaintiff does not sell a marked product in a particular country, then a third-party’s re-sale of that product in that particular country does not establish damage from lost sales. Further, reputational injury generally occurs when “deception of consumers causes them to withhold trade from the plaintiff.” Thus, if there are no lost sales and no evidence that a community is aware of the plaintiff’s marks, then there is no reputational injury.

view Case Detail Download PDF