00-3538 CAE, Inc. v. Clean Air Engineering, Inc.

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“To support its argument that no overlap exists between the parties’ products and services, Clean Air relies heavily on the admissions of several of CAE, Inc.’s employees that, at present, CAE, Inc. does not provide technical consultation, testing, research or engineering in the field of environmental processes, for which Clean Air sought registration, nor does it provide equipment for air pollution testing and monitoring. As the district court found based on the newly presented evidence, however, the undisputed facts show that the parties do offer some of the same products and services. Both offer, under the CAE name, process engineering and data acquisition systems, equipment, and services to companies with industrial processes. Process engineering includes SCADA systems, which both parties market to their customers (many of whom are the same) for the purpose of making existing equipment work more efficiently and making operators perform more efficiently, thereby increasing profits. Both companies’ process engineering technologies have applications in the same industries: pulp and paper, electric power, natural gas processing and petroleum refining, semiconductor, pharmaceutical and surface coating. In addition, Clean Air markets software that can be used as an add-on or upgrade for a SCADA system, including those SCADA systems designed and built by CAE, Inc. Thus, the district court correctly concluded that the undisputed facts demonstrated that Clean Air’s use of a mark identical to that registered by CAE, Inc. in connection with closely related products and services is likely to cause confusion.

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Urbom, J., Ripple, J.