Punchbowl News’ Trademark Win Despite Rogers Setback

Punchbowl News won the trademark infringement lawsuit filed by greeting card and event planning company, Punch Bowl Inc., despite a previous setback at the Ninth Circuit. Scott Hervey and Jamie Lincenberg discuss this recent development in this installment of The Briefing.

 

 

Cases Discussed:

• Rogers V. Grimaldi
• Jack Daniels Properties Inc. Versus VIP products
• Punchbowl, Inc. V. Aj Press, Llc

Watch this episode on the Weintraub YouTube channel here.

Show Notes:

Scott:
Despite a 2022 setback at the Ninth Circuit, Punch Bowl News ultimately came out a winner in a trademark infringement lawsuit bought by a greeting card and event planning company, Punch Bowl Inc.

I’m Scott Hervey from Weintraub Tobin, and today I’m joined by Jamie Lincenberg. We are going to talk about this case again and the future of trademark infringement cases in light of the recent changes to the applicability of the Rogers Test on this next installment of The Briefing.

Jamie, welcome back to The Briefing.

Jamie:
Thank you, Scott. It’s nice to join you here again.

Scott:
Do you remember talking about this case in 2022 when we covered the appeal to the Ninth Circuit?

Jamie:
I sure do. Yeah.

Scott:
I think it’s good to give some closure to this case since we already covered it. Why don’t Let me start with the case? Punchbowl Inc. Is an online technology company whose product is online invitations and online greeting cards. It has been using the mark Punchbowl since 2006, and it has a federal trademark registration covering the mark. AJ Press was founded by two journalists who used to write for Politico. AJ Press operates Punch Bull News, a subscription-based online news publication that covers in American government and politics. Given the publication’s focus on federal politics, AJ Press chose Punch Bowl because that’s the nickname the Secret Service uses to refer to the US Capitol. It makes sense if you think about the capital turned upside down. It looks like a Punch Bowl. The title Punch Bowl News was selected to elicit the theme and geographic location of the publication. Punch Bowl, the technology company, sued for trademark infringement, and the district court granted AJ Press’s motion to dismiss on the grounds that their use of punch bowl did not give rise to liability under the Rogers test because it constituted protected expression, and it was not expressly misleading as to its source.

Jamie:
So, I think we should revisit the Rogers test.

Scott:
Yeah, let’s do that.

Jamie:
The Rogers test comes from the 1989 Second Circuit case of Rogers versus Grimaldi. The case involved a lawsuit brought by Ginger Rogers concerning the film entitled Fred and Ginger, which was about two Italian cabaret performers whose act emulated the dance routines of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In that case, the district Court and the Second Circuit on Appeal both said, the use of a third-party mark in an expressive work does not violate the Lanham Act if the title has artistic relevance to the underlying work, and if it has some artistic relevance, that it’s not explicitly misleading as to the source of the content of the work. This then became known as the Rogers Test.

Scott:
Applying the Rogers Test, the lower court and the Punch Bowl case dismissed trademark claims, and the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court’s dismissal. However, in the weeks following the Ninth Circuit’s opinion, the Supreme Court granted cert for Jack Daniels Properties Inc. Versus VIP products, otherwise known as the Squeaky Dog Toy case. The Ninth Circuit stayed its original decision in the Punch Bowl case to wait the Supreme Court’s decision. Now, the Jack Daniels Properties versus VIP Products dispute involved the claim by Jack Daniels that this dog toy, Bad Spaniels, infringed a number of Jack Daniels trademarks. At the district Court and on appeal at the Ninth Circuit, the issue in the Jack Daniels case was framed as to whether the dog toy was an expressive work since trademark claims involving expressive work are analyzed under the Rogers test. On appeal, however, the Supreme Court said that the issue really was not whether the dog toy is an expressive work or not an expressive work, but rather the nature of the use of the Jack Daniels marks. The Supreme Court found that VIP’s use of the marks, while humorous, were for the purpose of serving as a source identifier, so trademark use.

The Supreme Court held that the Rogers test does not apply to instances where the mark is used as a source identifier, regardless of whether it is also used to perform some expressive function.

Jamie:
Subsequent to the Supreme Court’s holding in Jack Daniels, the Ninth Circuit then vacated its original ruling in the Punch Bowl case and then held that the Rogers test doesn’t apply to this case because AJ Press uses Punch Bowl to identify its news product. The Ninth Circuit said, to the extent that any previous cases held that Rogers applies when an expressive mark is used as a mark and that the only threshold for applying Rogers was an attempt to apply the Lanham Act to an expressive work, that those cases are incorrect and are no longer good law.

Scott:
So, under Jack Daniels because A. J. Press used Punch Bowl as a trademark, regardless of the fact that there is an expressive purpose for the use of Punch Bowl and that its use is not expressly misleading, the Rogers test is not going to be applied here. The Court sent the case back to the district Court, the Ninth Circuit sent the case back to the District Court with instructions to analyze the case under the Ninth Circuit’s Sleekcraft Test. That’s the test that’s used in the Ninth Circuit for determining trademark infringement. The court was going to examine punch bowls, or AJ Press’s use of punch bowl under the Sleekcraft factors, which are the strength of the mark, the proximity or relatedness of the goods, the similarity of the marks, evidence of factual confusion, the marketing channels used by the parties, the degree of consumer care in selecting the products, and the defendant’s intent, and any likelihood of expansion by the plaintiff into the space operated in by the defendant. Those are the tests for determining likelihood of confusion. They’re used in the Ninth Circuit, and similar versions of the Sleekcraft test are used in other districts throughout the United States.

Jamie:
The District Court, in finding no likelihood of confusion, seem to focus on the second and fifth factors that you just mentioned.

Scott:
Right, I agree. So, with regard to the second factor, the court found that the goods sold by the parties are not approximate, they’re not related, they’re not complementary, and they don’t function similarly. A platform offering tools for online party planning is not at all related to a news publication that focuses on politics. Also relevant to this point was the court’s finding that the products are not sold to the same class of purchasers.

Jamie:
The fifth factor is naturally related to the second factor. The more the products are related the more likely they are to have overlapping marketing channels. Now, interestingly, the court rejected the fact that both companies do use the internet as a marketing channel as evidence of overlapping marketing channels. The Court noted that almost all commercial retailers use the internet, and the shared use of a ubiquitous marketing channel is not evidence of the similarity contemplated by Slate Craft. In today’s world, the shared use of online marketing is not enough to constitute overlapping marketing channels, and a more specific level of overlap is going to be required.

Scott:
The dissimilarity in the goods and the lack of proximity between the goods, along with a failure to point out an overlapping discrete marketing channel, really carried the day. Now, the court called this result an obvious It stated that no reasonable consumer would purchase a subscription to a party planning software platform when they really intended to subscribe to a political news website. Do you agree with that? I agree with that.

Jamie:
I think that I would agree. I would agree with the court and say that this is an obvious decision. But Scott, what do you think the real takeaway is here?

Scott:
Yeah. I mean, a couple of takeaways. One is that even though Rogers was not applicable here, just like it’s not applicable in the squeaky dog toy case, the Jack Daniels case versus VIP products case, that’s not the end of the inquiry. We still need to go through the analysis of the sleep craft factors and really determine whether or not there is a likelihood of confusion. So, the fact now that Rogers might not be available to certain defendants really isn’t the end of the inquiry. Also, plaintiffs who know that the Rogers test is not available to a defendant, that’s not a victory either. It’s an interesting case. I’m glad we saw the result of this case, even though there was a loss of the Ninth Circuit. I think the result was one that we all thought should happen.

Jamie:
Yeah, I’m glad we were able to circle back and close the loop. Get some closure for the audience.

Scott:
Yeah. Well, thanks for joining me, Jamie.

Jamie:
Thanks, Scott.

Scott:
Thank you for joining us for today’s episode of The Briefing. We hope you found this episode informative and enjoyable. If you did, please remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and share this episode with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions about the topics we covered today, please leave us a comment.