Private label manufacturer defends against claims of trademark and trade dress infringement.
Questions at hand: How similar can a private label trademark be to the mark for the comparable national brand product? How similar can the packaging for the private label product be to the packaging for the name-brand product against which it competes? Are disclaimers of affiliation an effective means of preventing confusion in the minds of consumers? Are consumers confused by "compare to" statements?
These are the questions the United States District Court for the District of Utah recently addressed in ruling that the name for a private label anti-wrinkle cream is not confusingly similar to that of the national brand anti-wrinkle cream. The Court also rejected the trade dress claim that the private label packaging too closely resembled the packaging of the national brand product.
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