Mead Data Central, Inc. v. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

875 F.2d 1026 (1989)

From our private database of 46,200+ case briefs, written and edited by humans—never with AI.

Mead Data Central, Inc. v. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
875 F.2d 1026 (1989)

Play video

Facts

Mead Data Central, Inc. (Mead) (plaintiff) operated a computer-based, legal-research service under the trademark Lexis. In 1987, Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) (defendant) announced that Toyota would manufacture and market a new line of luxury automobiles under the Lexus label. Prior to adopting Lexus as a trademark for its new vehicles, Toyota was counseled that no conflict existed between Toyota’s use of Lexus as a mark for vehicles and Mead’s existing use of Lexis as a mark for legal-research services. After Toyota ignored Mead’s cease-and-desist letters, Mead brought a trademark-infringement suit against Toyota, claiming that Toyota’s use of the Lexus mark would dilute the value of Mead’s Lexis mark as a source identifier. At trial, the district court accepted evidence that 76 percent of surveyed attorneys identified the term Lexis as a legal-research service provided by Mead and that only 1 percent of the general public made the same connection. Nevertheless, the district court held in favor of Mead, finding that there would be a likelihood of trademark dilution if Toyota was allowed to use Lexus in connection with its vehicles. Toyota appealed the decision.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Van Graafeiland, J.)

What to do next…

  1. Unlock this case brief with a free (no-commitment) trial membership of Quimbee.

    You’ll be in good company: Quimbee is one of the most widely used and trusted sites for law students, serving more than 797,000 law students since 2011. Some law schools—such as Yale, Berkeley, and Northwestern—even subscribe directly to Quimbee for all their law students.

    Unlock this case briefRead our student testimonials
  2. Learn more about Quimbee’s unique (and proven) approach to achieving great grades at law school.

    Quimbee is a company hell-bent on one thing: helping you get an “A” in every course you take in law school, so you can graduate at the top of your class and get a high-paying law job. We’re not just a study aid for law students; we’re the study aid for law students.

    Learn about our approachRead more about Quimbee

Here's why 797,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:

  • Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,200 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
  • The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
  • Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
  • Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.

Access this case brief for FREE

With a 7-day free trial membership
Here's why 797,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
  • Reliable - written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students
  • The right length and amount of information - includes the facts, issue, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents
  • Access in your class - works on your mobile and tablet
  • 46,200 briefs - keyed to 988 casebooks
  • Uniform format for every case brief
  • Written in plain English - not in legalese and not just repeating the court's language
  • Massive library of related video lessons - and practice questions
  • Top-notch customer support

Access this case brief for FREE

With a 7-day free trial membership