BLUE BELL BIO-MEDICAL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CIN-BAD, INC., d/b/a CBi Medical, Inc., Robert A. Bishop, II and Ray Melander, Jr., Defendants-Appellees, 864 F.2d 1253

Summary

Appellant challenged the judgment of the lower court denying preliminary injunction in a trade dress infringement and an unfair competition claim. The court affirmed the judgment. In addressing the trade dress infringement claim, the court considered appellant's challenges to the lower court's findings and found that a former distributor of a product did not have a greater duty than others in the market to distinguish its product from that of its prior manufacturer. In addition, the lower court's failure to make an explicit finding regarding appellees' intent did not mean the court misapplied the law. In analyzing the unfair competition claim, the court applied the digits of confusion test and stated that the likelihood of consumer confusion was determined by evaluating a variety of factors. After reviewing the record, the court affirmed there was no likelihood of confusion. Since the court found no confusion under federal law, its ruling controlled the state unfair competition claim.