DORR-OLIVER, INCORPORATED, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. FLUID-QUIP, INCORPORATED and ANDREW FRANKO, Defendants-Appellants., 94 F.3d 376

Summary

Plaintiff company sued defendants, a company, its president, and a majority stockholder alleging that defendants copied the trade dress of an industrial machine sold by plaintiff in violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.S. § 1501 et seq., and various state law provisions. Trial court held that plaintiff had established the infringement of its trade dress and enjoined plaintiff from selling its infringing product and awarded plaintiff monetary relief representing plaintiff's profits from the sale of infringing machine. On appeal, the court reversed trial court's decision since plaintiff failed to establish a likelihood of consumer confusion. The proper examination was not whether some people viewing industrial machine in industry plants might be confused, but rather whether consumers in the market for the machines were likely to be confused. Thus, the evidence relied on by trial court was not sufficient to establish a likelihood of consumer confusion.