Legal Environment of Business
Prof. Sue Ganske, J.D., M.A.
Introduction
Two Pesos, Inc., v. Taco Cabana, Inc. tells the story of two competing Mexican themed restaurants and the legal fight of the understanding of the protections awarded under § 43(a) of the Lanham Act,15 U.S.C.S §1125 (a). The legal fight is for the protection or not of unregistered trade dresses under the Lanham Act, specifically the need or not for secondary meaning, in order to determine if in fact, there was infringement of trade dress. The United States Supreme Court resolution on this case addresses the differences between the Fifth and the Second Circuit and provides clarity in the application of the Lanham Act and requirements of secondary meaning. A brief history
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Taco Cabana U. S Court of Appeals
Two pesos appealed to the Fifth circuit stating that Courts instructions to the Jury was contradicting, Two Pesos objected that the trade dress could not be inherently distinctive and not have secondary meaning. Two Pesos argued that the district court failed to inform the Jury that the trade dress could only be protected if it was found to have secondary meaning.
The court of appeals ruled that the instructions were within the law, held that the evidence provided supported jury’s findings and rejected Two Pesos argument that the trade dress not being inherently distinctive contradicted with having no secondary meaning. The court of appeals reaffirmed its decision on the Chevron Chemical Co. v. Voluntary Purchasing Groups, Inc., 659nF.2d 695, 702 (CA5 1981), where the court indicated that trade mark law only when a trademark is not essentially distinctive would require demonstration of secondary meaning, the court of appeals held that the same principle should be applied to the protection of trade dresses. The court of appeals also noted that their decision contradicts with the decision of the Second Circuit because they required the proof of secondary meaning to grant the protection of unregistered trademarks as they ruled in the Vibrant Sales, Inc. v. New Body Boutique,
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Other things remained unclear as the level of similarity accepted by the court before an infringement consideration. For second market entrants, having business concepts similar to the first brand in the market could result challenging because there are no specific outlines as of what level of similarity is accepted without facing any legal issues or violation the protection under the Lanham Act. As of today July 2017, there is still no specific regulation on the acceptance of brand similarities.
The After Case
A year after the resolution of the case Two Pesos sold its stores to Taco Cabana for shares onf their company for a total of 22 million. Taco Cabana changed some of the Stores to Taco Cabana and other locations were
Diaz offered foreign investors to start business in Mexico and encouraged utilization of the country’s natural resources through the investment of foreign capital (284).
In “Wal-Mart vs. Pyramids”, Laura Carlsen questions the super franchises business tactics and opposes their attempt to build on the sacred, holy land that was once Teotihuacan. In her argument, Carlsen suggest that building in this area would infringe on the country’s cultural heritage, one that goes back thousands of years. Laura Carlsen gives a compelling argument against Wal-Marts’ practices in Mexico by displaying effective uses of ethos, pathos, and logos, as well as her successful use of other rhetoric appeals.
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduria General de la Republica, PGR) had issued information related to the conformation of the seven principal drug cartels present at Mexico:
(7) Right to appellate review: The Supreme Court did not rule regarding appeal since their ruling was this case was to be remanded back to the lower courts.
v. VIP Prods., LLC 666 F. Supp. 2d 974 (Mo., 2008) Anheuser-Busch makes a distinction between confusing and non-confusing parodies, the latter being protected as a parody. The important factors in the case were that the price point of the products was the same, they were directly competing goods and the survey showed that there was a level of confusion (30.3% were confused), in addition, consideration was placed on irreparable harm caused by the defendants use of the mark, the priority lay with the first to register the trademark, lastly the District Court considered public interest, i.e. whether the public was deceived. Similarly in Starbucks Corp v. Wolfe’s Borough Coffee Inc., 588 F3d 97 (2d Cir. 2007) the court distinguished Louis Vuitton S.A. v Haute Diggty Dog, LLC, 507 F.3d 252 (4th Cir. 2007) by holding that if (as in the Louis Vuitton case), the mark is used in non-competing goods, the defendant conveyed that it was not the source of the plaintiffs product and if the actual use of the mark does not impair the distinctiveness of the plaintiff’s mark there may be an argument in favor of the defendant, however, if the defendant’s humor is not conveyed to the public, and does not increase the public identification of the plaintiff’s mark with its mark it will fail to establish
The Great Divide University of California-Berkley geographer and author Michael Johns argues in his novel, The City of Mexico in the Age of Diaz, that the central Zocalo of Mexico City does more than geographically segregate the East from the West, but Mexico’s national mentality as well. During the years of Diaz’s democratic façade, the upper classes thrived upon plantation exports, feudalist economics and the iron fist of Diaz’s rurales while struggling to maintain European social likeness. East of the Zocalo, shantytowns housed thousands of poor pelados that served as societal blemishes of a suburbanite’s experience. In Johns’s work, the penniless and indigenous serve as the scapegoats for the priviledged and their obsession with grooming Mexico City to be a little Europe. A growing affluent class called upon the Diaz regime and imported architects to construct buildings in the Zocalo to reflect a “proper” image that drew on influences from Europe and the United States.
Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352; 111 S. Ct. 1859, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991).
1. The court stated that they did have power to hear this case: "Since the court has consistently exercised the power to construe and delineate claims arising under express powers, it must follow that the Court has authority to interpret claims with respect to powers alleged to derive from enumerated powers."
must be excluded. But it was held admissible and the idea was excluded from the case
The aim of this essay is to critically discuss how the law of passing off and trade mark law have common roots and therefore are, in many respects, similar. I will begin with a short brief history of trade mark law and the law of passing off. I move on to discuss the similarity between trade mark law and the law of passing off with reference to relevant case law and statutes. Although, passing off and trade mark law deal with overlapping factual situations, s 2(2) of the Trade Mark Act 1994 maintains passing off as a separate cause of action. When a trade mark is threatened by the actions of third parties the proprietor will bring an action for both passing off and trade mark infringement which both share many similarities. However, they are
The process of the judging on this criteria goes like this: First, a business or organization that loses an appeal in the Us court system, they are allowed to file a petition, called a “cert petition” (Savage 981). These petitions explain in thirty pages or less the process, views, and decision of the case. These are then given to the Law Clerks, who create a “cert memo”. This is created when the Clerk rea...
If one were to visit different countries and societies throughout the world, they may notice the many differences and similarities each region shares. This makes the world a very unique place because there is constant change and diversity everywhere we look, no matter the distance traveled. A prime example of this would be the similarities and differences between the United States of America and Mexico. Although the two are neighboring countries, there is a great deal of diversity amongst them that deserve a thorough examination.
4. Raven, M. E. (2000, October). Seventh Circuit affirms FTC's ruling that Toys "R" Us led illegal boycott. Corporate Counsel (7), p. A6.
Many businesses used this new process to raise the price of their competitors. They did this by putting constraints on entry restrictions (Woods 1986). At the state level, other laws were put in place to support the Food and Drug Act mainly to help local and area producers who were and would be facing new nat...
Out of all the trips I have taken, Cancun was definitely the best. It was 2013 and I was in fifth grade. I had known about the trip for weeks and I was so amped up for the plane ride, for the hotel, and especially the ocean. I was in science and the teacher was getting mad because I was distracting all the kids by jittering all over the place. Finally I heard my name called over the intercom and I leaped for joy and ran out of the classroom. From school we drove to the Iowa Airport, got our tickets and loaded onto the plane. Our first plane took us to Chicago, Illinois where we boarded a plane , at the O’Hare International Airport, departing for Cancun,Mexico. The second plane was very lengthy, I tried to sleep but I didn’t actually fall asleep