Miller Brewing Co. v. Falstaff Brewing Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
655 F.2d 5 (1981)
- Written by Rich Walter, JD
Facts
In 1972, Miller Brewing Company (Miller) (plaintiff) introduced a relatively low-calorie beer called Miller Lite. Between 1972 and 1978, Miller repeatedly tried to prevent other brewers from describing their own low-calorie beers as “lite.” Courts gave Miller’s trademark claims full and fair hearings but ultimately denied Miller’s claims on the grounds that “lite” was a non-trademarkable generic term for low-calorie beers. In 1980, Falstaff Brewing Corporation (Falstaff) (defendant) began marketing Falstaff Lite low-calorie beer. Miller sued Falstaff for trademark infringement, false advertising, and unfair competition. Pending trial on these issues, the federal district court granted Miller a preliminary injunction barring commercial use of “lite” to describe Falstaff’s beer. The court reasoned that whatever the situation had been prior to 1978, by 1980 Miller had so successfully promoted its Lite brand that “lite” was no longer a generic term but had acquired a secondary meaning primarily associated with Miller Lite. Falstaff appealed to the First Circuit.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Wyzanski, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 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.
