United States Ninth Circuit

Unclean hands will not act as a defense to trademark infringement under the Lanham Act where plaintiff did not use the mark to deceive customers, and a finding that mark is "primarily geographically deceptively misdescriptive" is improper on summary judgment; secondary meaning cannot be established where actual confusion is not shown.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/08/2001
• Decided 04/24/2002
• Published 04/24/2002

Judges

• Before:  HALL, KOZINSKI and W. FLETCHER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Paul D. Gruen of the Law Offices of Jose Mariano Castillo, Los Angeles, CA, argued for appellant Japan Telecom, Inc. Jose Mariano Castillo of the same firm and Ben K. Takahashi of Takahashi Law Corporation, Los Angeles, CA, assisted on the brief.


• For Appellees:
  
• Victor H. Polk, Jr. of Bingham Dana LLP, Boston, MA, argued for appellee Japan Telecom America, Inc. Rheba Rutkowski, of the same firm, assisted on the brief.