Written by Mark Terry

Does the type of advertising employed by a defendant in a trademark infringement case matter? Yes it does. In fact, it is one of several key factors that are central to a trademark infringement case. As a Miami Trademark Attorney currently representing litigants in multiple trademark infringement cases in the Southern District of Florida, advertising and its relation to the trademark infringement analysis are subjects that have come up more than once in a dispute.

It is standard in a trademark infringement case to discover information about advertising employed by the defendant, since similarity in advertising media is one of the seven factors used in assessing whether likelihood of consumer confusion – the touchstone of trademark infringement – has occurred. Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon, Inc. v. Longhorn Steaks, Inc., 122 F.3d 1379, 1382 (11th Cir.1997).In determining the likelihood of confusion between two marks, the 11th Circuit requires a district court to analyze the following seven factors:
(1) type of mark,
(2) similarity of mark,
(3) similarity of the products the marks represent,
(4) similarity of the parties’ retail outlets and customers,
(5) similarity of advertising media used,
(6) defendant’s intent and
(7) actual confusion.

As such, the type of advertising (element 5 in the seven factor test above) employed by the infringing party is probative of whether there was similarity between the advertising used by the infringer, as compared to that of the Plaintiff. Frehling Enterprises v. Int’l Group Select, 192 F.3d 1330, 1339 (11th Cir., 1999). Consequently, it is important that all information pertaining to the advertising used by the Defendant in a trademark infringement case is requested and produced during the discovery period of a lawsuit, since similarity in advertising media is crucial to the trademark infringement inquiry.