The Squirt Company v. The Seven-Up Company

480 F. Supp. 789 (1979)

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The Squirt Company v. The Seven-Up Company

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
480 F. Supp. 789 (1979)

Facts

The Squirt Company (plaintiff) sued the Seven-Up Company (defendant) for infringing on its trademark. The Squirt Company alleged that the Seven-Up Company’s lemonade-flavored soda named Quirst infringed on the Squirt Company’s grapefruit-flavored soda called Squirt. Evidence in the form of a survey, sponsored by Seven-Up and conducted by the Maritz Company, was introduced to examine the existence of consumer confusion. Rather than relying on a survey conducted in people’s homes or another nonpurchasing environment, asking their opinions about various trademarks and whether they appeared related, the Maritz Company survey was conducted in three low-cost grocery stores over a period of three days. The survey was conducted by offering customers a coupon for a 50-cent discount on the purchase of noncola soft drinks. After customers completed their shopping and paid for their purchases, surveyors intercepted them at that point as the customers were leaving the store. The customers were asked if they had received and used the coupon upon arrival. If the customers had used the coupon, they were asked to state what brand of soda they purchased. Then customers were asked to show the interviewer the soda purchased and offered an additional discount for the inconvenience. The interviewers made note of what brands were actually purchased. Once the results were compiled and analyzed, there were 839 people who showed their purchasers to the interviewers. Of 70 shoppers who stated that they had purchased Squirt, 65 had indeed purchased Squirt. Two of the 70 had actually purchased Sprite. Only three of the 70, 4.3 percent, who said they purchased Squirt had actually purchased Quirst.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Harper, J.)

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