United States Federal Circuit

In a trademark dispute over the mark COACH between a publisher of books and software used to assist teachers and students in preparing for standardized tests and a seller of a wide variety of "accessible luxury" products such as handbags, luggage, clothing, watches, eye glasses, and wallets, the decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board with respect to the publisher's use-based applications to register the mark is: 1) affirmed in part, where: a) the Board did not abuse its discretion when it excluded corporate annual reports the handbag seller attempted to admit through a notice of reliance; b) the Board correctly found no likelihood of confusion; and c) the handbag seller failed to prove fame for dilution purposes; and 2) vacated and remanded in part as to its finding of acquired distinctiveness, where the Board's evidentiary errors called into question the validity of its secondary meaning analysis.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/21/2012
• Published 02/21/2012

Judges

• O'Malley

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Norman H. Zivin, R. David Hosp