Assignment #4: P131, #7
Miller Brewing Co. v. Falstaff Brewing Corporation, 655 F.2d 5 (1997)
Abstracts: In 1980, Miller Brewing, whose low calorie beer named “Miller Lite” had been sold since 1970, filed against Falstaff to protect its trademark. The former didn’t want the latter, whose product of similar kind was called “Falstaff Lite”, to use the term which it spent millions of dollar advertising. The outcome of the case:
In the original district court, a preliminary injunction was released to restrain Falstaff Brewing Corp. from marketing any low calorie beer under any brand with the word “Lite”. The court found for Miller because its conclusions were based on these findings: (1) Miller since 1972 had sold millions of barrels of a low calorie beer under the name "LITE," (2) Miller had spent millions of dollars on advertising its beer under that name, (3) Miller is likely to succeed in proving (a) that the consuming public has come to associate the symbol LITE with the Miller brand of reduced calorie beer, and (b) that "LITE" presently signifies to the public Miller's and no one else's product, and (4) Falstaff since July 11, 1980 has been brewing reduced calorie beer, and has been bottling and shipping it in containers bearing the label "Falstaff Lite." Consequently, the court believed that Miller has since 1978 acquired a de jure primary meaning for the term "LITE" as its product.
Falstaff appealed and won the case basing on two independent grounds: (1) Miller was precluded by principles of collateral estoppel from securing it and (2) the trademark "LITE" is a generic term which is incapable of acquiring a de jure secondary meaning. Therefore, the appellate district court vacated the preliminary injunction in order to allow trademark protection for generic terms, promoting fair competition.