Court says shoo to Scat's infringement claim against Dodge

Scat Enterprises, Inc. v. FCA US LLC, 2017 WL 5896182, No. CV 14-7995 (C.D. Cal. Jun. 8, 2017)Scat, a maker of aftermarket car parts, sued over FCA’s use of “Scat Pack” in connection with its Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger “Scat Pack”-edition cars, primarily alleging reverse confusion.  The court rejected its claims for money remedies (disgorgement, corrective advertising, treble damages, or punitive damages).  Scat sought disgorgement of profits under an unjust enrichment theory rather than as a measure of lost sales; this requires willful infringement in the Ninth Circuit.  And willfulness means actions “calculated to exploit the advantage of an established mark.”  As to Scat’s reverse confusion theory, there could be no such calculated exploitation where the junior mark overwhelms the senior. Thus, there can be no accounting “even if the defendant was willfully blind to the possibility of…

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