United States Ninth Circuit

Summary judgment and permanent injunction against defendant in a trademark infringement action brought by plaintiff, a marketer of organic mushrooms, who alleged that defendant wrongly imported and marketed mushrooms under the plaintiff’s marks for Certified Organic Mushrooms even though the imported mushrooms were cultivated in Japan under nonorganic standards by the plaintiff’s parent company, is affirmed, where: 1) trademark law extended to the imported mushrooms because they materially differed from the plaintiff's product both in their production and in their packaging and thus were not "genuine goods" of the plaintiff; 2) the district court correctly concluded that there was no genuine dispute of material fact as to whether the defendant's marketing in the United States of foreign-produced nonorganic mushrooms under the plaintiff's marks created a likelihood of consumer confusion; and 3) the Japanese parent company's trademarks were not subject to cancellation for fraud, nor were they abandoned, because the company did not engage in "naked licensing."

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/24/2013
• Published 12/24/2013

Judges

• WARDLAW

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel