KING OF THE MOUNTAIN SPORTS, INC., a Wyoming corporation, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION, a Michigan corporation; ECLIPSE TELEVISION AND SPORTS MARKETING, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company; ECLIPSE TELEVISION AND SPORTS MARKETING, INC., a California corporation; HENRY SCHNEIDMAN, an individual, and MARK SCHELDE, an individual, Defendants - Appellees, and BOGNER OF AMERICA, INC., a Delaware corporation, Defendant., 185 F.3d 1084

Summary

Plaintiff sued defendants for trademark infringement and other claims. The district court granted summary judgment to defendants on all claims but plaintiff appealed the ruling only as to the trademark infringement claims. The court engaged in a de novo factual review and affirmed the district court's summary judgment in favor of defendants. The court looked at six factors to determine the likelihood of consumer confusion: the degree of similarity between the marks; defendants' intent; actual confusion; similarity of goods; degree of care exercised by consumers; and the strength of the marks. The court said that the most important factor was the degree of similarity and examined the marks on three levels: sight, sound, and meaning, as they were encountered in the marketplace. The court determined that the marks were dissimilar, that defendants had no intent to infringe, and that plaintiff's anecdotal evidence of actual confusion was de minimis. Because of the great dissimilarity, no ...