Protection of Generic Name Oscar - United States
A federal court in California denied a motion for summar judgement brought by an Academy against RAI International. The Academy owns the famous OSCAR mark which it has been using for 80 years. The defendants an Italian broadcaster included Italian programs not produced by the Academy that used the term OSCAR to mean a type of award.
The court applied the multifactor analysis to determine the existence of a likelihood of confusion with regard to OSCAR mark. While OSCAR was recognized as strong in the English lanuage, the court held that the defendants presented sufficient evidence to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to whether it had become generic in Italian. Defendants also presented evidence that the broadcasts targeted Italians living in the United States. The court held that there were genuine issues of material fact regarding factors in a proper likelihood of confusion analysis. Since the motion for summary judgement was denied, the case will now proceed towards trial.
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