Intellectual Property – Trademarks – tacking

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 U.S. Supreme Court

Civil

Intellectual Property – Trademarks – tacking

Whether two trademarks may be tacked for purposes of determining priority is a question for the jury.

Each of petitioner’s four arguments in support of its view that tacking is a question of law to be resolved by a judge is unpersuasive. First, it may be true that the “legal equivalents” test involves a legal standard, but such “ ‘mixed question[s] of law and fact,’ [have] typically been resolved by juries.” Gaudin, 515 U. S., at 512. And any concern that a jury may improperly apply the relevant legal standard can be remedied by crafting careful jury instructions. Second, petitioner offers no support for its claim that tacking determinations create new law in a unique way that requires those determinations to be reserved for judges. Third, petitioner worries that the predictability required for a functioning trademark system will be absent if tacking questions are assigned to juries, but offers no reason why trademark tacking should be treated differently from the tort, contract, and criminal justice systems, where juries answer often-dispositive factual questions or make dispositive applications of legal standards to facts. Finally, in arguing that judges have historically resolved tacking disputes, petitioner points to cases arising in the contexts of bench trials, summary judgment, and the like, in which it is undisputed that judges may resolve tacking disputes.

735 F. 3d. 1158, affirmed.

13-1211 Hana Financial, Inc., v. Hana Bank

Sotomayor, J.

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