A sex shop won a US Supreme Court fight to call itself Victor's Little Secret on Tuesday, poking holes in a trademark case brought by lingerie vendor Victoria's Secret.
The Supreme Court stripped away an earlier decision by the Federal District Court, which had ruled in favor of Victoria's Secret.
Victoria's Secret, with annual sales of more than US$1.5 billion, undoubtedly enjoyed a famous and valuable name, the unanimous Supreme Court decision said.
But under federal legislation, Victoria's Secret had to show it had been harmed by its name being associated with the Kentucky store, which sold adult videos and sex toys.
The lingerie giant had argued that Victor's Little Secret, owned by Victor and Cathy Mosely in a strip mall in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, was a thinly-veiled imitation that tainted its name.
But there was a "complete absence of evidence" to show that the Victoria's Secret name had lost any of its power to identify its own lingerie in stores or catalogs, the court said.
The case had begun in 1998 when an army colonel at nearby Fort Knox, Kentucky, saw the sex shop's advertisement for "Adult Novelties/Gifts" for Valentine's Day.
The colonel, offended by what he saw as an attempt to use the Victoria's Secret name to sell "unwholesome, tawdry merchandise", sent a copy to the lingerie group.
When lawyers for Victoria's Secret's complained, the sex shop -- then called Victor's Secret -- changed its name to Victor's Little Secret. But Victoria's Secret was still unsatisfied, eventually taking the case to court.
In the earlier District Court ruling, Victoria's Secret had convinced the court that the sex store had "diluted" the value of its trademark under federal legislation. That ruling was reversed Tuesday.
The District Court had rejected two other Victoria's Secret claims -- that the sex store had infringed on Victoria's Secret trademark because people might not see through the similarity in names or that it had engaged in unfair competition through misrepresentation.
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