APPLE CORPS. LIMITED and SUBAFILMS LTD., Plaintiffs, v. BUTTON MASTER, P.C.P., Inc. and PHILIP CECCOLA, Defendants., 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3366

Summary

Defendants manufactured and sold buttons featuring logos and likenesses, as well as song titles and phrases, of a musical group whose proprietary rights were owned exclusively by plaintiffs. Plaintiffs sued, claiming defendants violated federal trademark and copyright statutes. One defendant argued he had contracts to use individual likenesses of group members. The court held that the contracts were irrelevant due to defendant's prior material breach. The court also held that plaintiffs met the multi-part test requisite to proving trademark infringement with respect to the logo of the group's name, and specifically proved the sufficient likelihood of public confusion required to show trademark infringement under either of two sets of tests. However, the court held that plaintiffs failed to meet the burden of proof that titles, words, and phrases from the group's albums had acquired secondary meaning sufficient to warrant trademark protection. The court then held likenesses that ...