Sportfuel, Inc. v. Pepsico, Inc.

932 F.3d 589 (2019) United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit 2019-08-02

Appeal from summary judgment for defendants; fair-use defense reviewed de novo; confusion was not adjudicated. (result: claimant-lost)

Facts

  1. 13 Good-faith descriptive use other than as a mark satisfied law
    In short, to raise the fair use defense successfully, Gatorade must show that (1) it did not use "Sports Fuel" as a trademark, (2) the use is descriptive of its goods, and (3) it used the mark fairly and in good faith.
  2. 13 Good-faith descriptive use other than as a mark satisfied law
    The products' individual packaging and displays feature Gatorade's house mark and G Bolt logo more prominently.
  3. 13 Good-faith descriptive use other than as a mark satisfied law
    SportFuel emphasizes that Gatorade employed a "TM" symbol with the slogan and obtained a trademark for the slogan.
  4. 13 Good-faith descriptive use other than as a mark satisfied law
    Accordingly, we do not believe the district court erred in determining that Gatorade never employed the term "Sports Fuel" as a trademark in its "Gatorade The Sports Fuel Company" slogan.
  5. 13 Good-faith descriptive use other than as a mark satisfied law
    First, producers of nutritional products for athletes regularly invoke the "Sports Fuel" terminology to describe the products they sell. Gatorade provided numerous examples of this widespread industry use to the district court, including, for example, Twin Laboratories' "SPORT FUEL" and Trident Sports' "SPORTS FUEL."
  6. 13 Good-faith descriptive use other than as a mark satisfied law
    We conclude that Gatorade's slogan uses "Sports Fuel" in a descriptive sense.
  7. 13 Good-faith descriptive use other than as a mark satisfied law
    Further, it is clear from the record that Gatorade provided sufficient evidence that it used the term "Sports Fuel" fairly and in good faith.
  8. 13 Good-faith descriptive use other than as a mark satisfied law
    Gatorade's stated purpose in adopting the challenged slogan was to help the company better describe its business and the products it sells. Nothing in the record actually contradicts this purpose.