F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
PUBLISH
DEC 12 2001
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
TENTH CIRCUIT
VITTORIA NORTH AMERICA,
L.L.C., an Oklahoma limited liability
company,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
EURO-ASIA IMPORTS INC., a
California sole proprietorship; No. 00-6277
BEVERLY A. HANSING, DEBORAH
H. LETO, DENNIS R. HANSING, and
DEANNE MARIE HANSING, in their
capacity as Trustees of the Hansing
Family Trust Dated November 15,
1990
Defendants-Appellants.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Oklahoma
(D.C. No. 99-CV-1357-A)
Frances E. Patton (Ted R. Rossier, Brandy K. Isom, and Susan A. Doke with her
on the briefs), of Pierce, Couch, Hendrickson, Baysinger & Green, L.L.P.,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Defendants-Appellants.
George H. Brown of Klingenberg & Associates, P.C., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
(Kenneth W. Klingenberg of Klingenberg & Associates P.C., Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma, and Stanley W. Ward with him on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Before EBEL and MCKAY, Circuit Judges, and CUDAHY, * Senior Circuit
Judge.
EBEL, Circuit Judge.
In this case we are called upon to interpret provisions of the Tariff Act of
1930 designed to protect domestic owners of trademarks affixed to goods
produced overseas by foreign manufacturers. Plaintiff-Appellee Vittoria North
America, L.L.C., (“VNA”), an Oklahoma limited liability company, alleges that it
is the U.S. owner of the trademark Vittoria, which designates a well-known brand
of bicycle tires. VNA alleges that Defendant-Appellant Euro-Asia Imports, a
California sole proprietorship, has purchased Vittoria-branded tires overseas and
imported them into the United States in violation of VNA’s trademark rights.
VNA sued Euro-Asia Imports and its sole proprietor Robert Hansing 1 (collectively
“EAI”) under § 526 of the Tariff Act (codified at 19 U.S.C. § 1526) (“the Act”)
seeking damages as well as an injunction to prevent EAI from continuing to
import Vittoria bicycle tires into the United States. The Act states:
*Honorable Richard D. Cudahy, Senior Circuit Judge, United States Court
of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, sitting by designation.
1
Robert Hansing died shortly before oral argument in this case.
Accordingly, the Court granted a motion by trustees of the Hansing Family trust
to substitute themselves for Hansing as defendants-appellants.
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Except as provided in subsection (d) of this section, it shall be
unlawful to import into the United States any merchandise of foreign
manufacture if such merchandise, or the label, sign, print, package,
wrapper, or receptacle, bears a trademark owned by a citizen of, or
by a corporation or association created or organized within, the
United States, and registered in the Patent and Trademark Office by a
person domiciled in the United States, under the provisions of
sections 81 to 109 of Title 15, and if a copy of the certificate of
registration of such trademark is filed with the Secretary of the
Treasury, in the manner provided in section 106 of said Title 15,
unless written consent of the owner of such trademark is produced at
the time of making entry.
19 U.S.C. § 1526. In other words, the Act provides so-called “gray market” 2
protection to U.S. owners of trademarks associated with goods of foreign
manufacture, prohibiting any other person or entity from importing goods bearing
that trademark into the United States without the consent of the trademark owner.
See, e.g., K Mart Corp. v. Cartier, Inc., 486 U.S. 281, 288-89 (1988). “The
prototypical gray market victim . . . is a domestic firm that purchases from an
independent foreign firm the rights to register and use the latter’s trademark as a
United States trademark and to sell its foreign manufactured products here.” Id.
at 286.
The district court granted VNA partial summary judgment, holding that the
evidence showed that VNA owns and has properly registered the Vittoria
2
“Gray market goods” are defined to include “[f]oreign-manufactured
goods, bearing a valid United States trademark, that are imported without the
consent of the U.S. trademark holder.” Black’s Law Dictionary 701 (6th ed.
1990).
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trademark in the United States, that Vittoria-branded bicycle tires are
manufactured overseas, and that EAI has imported Vittoria tires into the United
States without VNA’s consent. EAI now appeals, arguing that the evidence was
insufficient to support summary judgment on the issue of whether VNA is the
U.S. owner of the Vittoria trademark. EAI further argues that VNA is not entitled
to protection under the Act because VNA is controlled by the foreign
manufacturer of Vittoria tires. In addition, EAI argues we should reverse because
the district court improperly denied it an opportunity to file a surrebuttal to
VNA’s reply brief on its motion for summary judgment. We AFFIRM.
I. BACKGROUND
On November 25, 1992, VNA’s predecessor Hibdon Tire Center entered
into an agreement (“the 1992 Agreement”) with Vittoria S.p.A. (“Vittoria Italy”),
a company organized under the laws of Italy and with headquarters in Bergamo,
Italy. Hibdon Tire Center agreed to form VNA as a North American distributor of
Vittoria tires, and Vittoria Italy agreed to designate VNA as its exclusive
distributor in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. VNA distributed Vittoria-
branded bicycle tires in the United States from that time forward. In February
1999, Vittoria Italy entered into an agreement (“Assignment Agreement”) with
VNA purporting to assign VNA “all right, title and interest in and to the United
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States Trademark ‘VITTORIA’ and the registration therefore . . . , together with
the goodwill of the business connected with the use of and symbolized by said
Trademark, as well as the right to sue for infringement of the Trademark or injury
to said goodwill.” The Assignment Agreement stated that “[t]he purpose of this
Agreement is to permit Assignee [VNA] to act against infringers and
unauthorized importers of Vittoria trademarked products into the United States.”
Vittoria Italy retained the right to retake title to the Trademark and its associated
goodwill upon giving thirty days’ written notice to VNA.
Shortly thereafter, VNA filed suit against EAI alleging that it infringed on
VNA’s trademark rights by importing Vittoria tires into the United States without
first gaining VNA’s consent. EAI concedes that it has been purchasing Vittoria-
branded tires overseas and importing the tires into the United States since the
early 1980s. VNA’s suit seeks damages, an injunction to prevent further
importation by EAI, and confiscation of EAI’s inventory of Vittoria-branded
products.
The district court granted VNA’s motion for partial summary judgment,
holding that undisputed facts in the case established VNA’s right to protection
under 19 U.S.C. § 1526. Vittoria N. Am., L.L.C. v. Euro-Asia Imports, No. CIV-
99-1357-A, slip op. at 1 (W.D. Okla. July 12, 2000). Specifically, the district
court found that “Vittoria” is a registered United States Trademark, id. at 3, that
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Vittoria Italy assigned all of its rights, title and interest in the mark to VNA, and
that the Assignment Agreement was recorded in the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office, id. The district court also found that VNA is not a subsidiary of Vittoria
Italy, and has no common officers or directors with Vittoria, id. Finally, the
district court found that the evidence showed EAI had imported and sold Vittoria-
branded products in the United States. Id. The district court therefore enjoined
EAI from further importation of Vittoria-branded products into the United States,
although it did not address the issue of damages in its order. Id. at 12.
EAI now appeals the district court’s injunction. EAI contends that the
evidence relied upon by the district court was insufficient to prove VNA’s
ownership of the Vittoria trademark in the United States. Further, EAI argues
that VNA is not entitled to protection under the Act because it falls under a
regulatory exception denying gray market protection to U.S. companies if they are
owned by or subject to common control with a foreign manufacturer of the
trademarked goods. See 19 C.F.R. § 133.23(d)(1). Finally, EAI argues that the
district court erred by failing to grant it leave to file a surrebuttal.
II. DISCUSSION
The district court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331, and we
exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). “In reviewing [an]
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injunction, we may also address the summary judgment order that served as the
district court’s principal legal basis for granting the injunction because the district
court’s ruling on summary judgment was inextricably intertwined with its ruling
granting a permanent injunction.” Law v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 134
F.3d 1010, 1015 (10th Cir. 1998) (citations omitted).
We review de novo a district court’s grant of summary judgment, and
affirm only if the “pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and
admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no
genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to
judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c); see also, e.g., Simms v.
Okla. ex rel. Dep’t of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Servs., 165 F.3d 1321,
1326 (10th Cir. 1999). We draw all inferences and construe the evidence in the
light most favorable to the non-moving party. E.g., Kingsford v. Salt Lake City
Sch. Dist., 247 F.3d 1123, 1128 (10th Cir. 2001).
A. Local Rule 56.1(c)
Before reaching the merits of the arguments before us, we must briefly
consider a threshold issue raised by VNA. VNA contends that a statement of
facts appended to VNA’s summary judgment motion should be construed as true
for the purposes of this appeal because EAI violated Rule 56.1(c) of the Local
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Court Rules for the Western District of Oklahoma in crafting its answer brief to
the summary judgment motion. Rule 56.1(c) reads:
The brief in opposition to a motion for summary judgment (or partial
summary judgment) shall begin with a section which contains a
concise statement of material facts to which the party asserts genuine
issues of fact exist. Each fact in dispute shall be numbered, shall
refer with particularity to those portions of the record upon which the
opposing party relies, and, if applicable, shall state the number of the
movant’s facts that is disputed. All material facts set forth in the
statement of the material facts of the movant shall be deemed
admitted for the purpose of summary judgment unless specifically
controverted by the statement of material facts of the opposing party.
We have reviewed EAI’s answer brief, and we agree with VNA that it
deviates from the requirements of Rule 56.1(c) in important respects.
Nevertheless, we note that the district court did not rely on these imperfections in
issuing its order, and “[t]his court has . . . recognized that district courts have
discretion in applying local rules.” Hernandez v. George, 793 F.2d 264, 266
(10th Cir. 1986). Moreover, VNA itself did not present this argument in its reply
brief. Cf. Walker v. Mather, 959 F.2d 894, 896 (10th Cir. 1992) (in general, a
court of appeals will not consider an issue that was not raised before the district
court). Accordingly, we hold that EAI is not precluded from challenging VNA’s
version of events on the basis of its failure to comply with Local Rule 56.1(c).
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B. Transfer of Vittoria Trademark to VNA
We next consider EAI’s contention that VNA is not entitled to gray market
protection under the Act. In order to prove entitlement to protection under the
Act, VNA must show that it is a corporation or association created or organized
within the United States, that it owns the Vittoria trademark in the United States,
that the trademark is registered in the Patent and Trademark Office of the United
States Customs Service, and that EAI is, without VNA’s consent, importing
Vittoria-branded goods of foreign manufacture. 19 U.S.C. § 1526(a). The district
court found that undisputed evidence sufficiently established each of these points.
EAI contests whether the evidence demonstrates that VNA owns the
Vittoria trademark in the United States. First, EAI asserts that the transfer was
invalid for purposes of establishing any rights to gray market protection because
the transaction was not at arm’s-length and because VNA did not “pay dearly” for
the assignment. EAI relies on K Mart Corp. v. Cartier, Inc., 486 U.S. 281 (1988)
to support its argument that the Act does not extend protection under such
circumstances. Cartier, however, does not purport to establish requirements for a
valid transfer of a trademark. Rather, it considers an exception to the Act
exempting U.S. trademark holders from its protections who are owned by or under
common control with a foreign manufacturer of trademarked goods. Cartier, 486
U.S. at 285 (noting that the issue in the case turned on interpretation of 19 C.F.R.
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§ 133.21 (1987)). Although we consider Cartier’s interpretation of this exception
in detail further in this opinion, Cartier provides no assistance to EAI’s challenge
to whether an actual transfer of a trademark occurred to the putative U.S. owner
in the first place. 3
EAI next asserts that the transfer was invalid because the Assignment
Agreement failed to transfer the goodwill associated with the trademark along
with the trademark itself. Courts have consistently held that a valid assignment of
a trademark or service mark requires the transfer of the goodwill associated with
the mark. See, e.g., Sands, Taylor & Wood Co. v. Quaker Oats Co., 978 F.2d
947, 956 (7th Cir. 1992) (“[T]he transfer of a trademark apart from the goodwill
of the business which it represents is an invalid ‘naked’ or ‘in gross’ assignment,
which passes no rights to the assignee.” (citation and quotations omitted)); Berni
3
To the extent that EAI’s briefs can be construed to argue that the evidence
gives rise to an inference that the Assignment Agreement was a sham, we
disagree. EAI notes correctly that the evidence is sufficient to show that Vittoria
Italy continues to market directly to original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”)
– i.e., bicycle manufacturers – in the United States and Canada. Further, EAI
points out that the Assignment Agreement contains a clause entitling Vittoria Italy
to retake possession of the U.S. rights to the trademark with thirty days written
notice. However, Vittoria Italy’s continued sales to U.S. OEMs does not show
that the transfer lacked validity. Rather, it demonstrates only that VNA has failed
to enforce its trademark with respect to that market against Vittoria Italy.
Likewise, the thirty-day reassignment clause does not establish that the transfer is
a sham, as the district court noted in its summary judgment order. Premier Dental
Prods. Co. v. Darby Dental Supply Co., 794 F.2d 850, 855-56 (3d Cir. 1986)
(“limitations in an otherwise valid assignment agreement do not invalidate it”).
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v. Int’l Gourmet Rests. of Am., Inc., 838 F.2d 642, 646 (2d Cir. 1988) (same);
Premier Dental Prods., 794 F.2d at 853 (transfer of goodwill is necessary to
transfer ownership of a trademark). “A trademark symbolizes the public’s
confidence or ‘goodwill’ in a particular product. However, it is no more than
that, and is insignificant if separated from that confidence. Therefore, a
trademark ‘is not the subject of property except in connection with an existing
business.’” Id. at 853 (quoting United Drug Co. v. Theodore Rectanus Co., 248
U.S. 90, 97 (1918)) (footnote omitted).
EAI points to several perceived distinctions between Premier Dental Prods.
and the facts of this case to suggest that goodwill did not transfer under the
Assignment Agreement. EAI notes that the assignee in Premier Dental Prods. was
not created expressly for the purpose of marketing goods bearing the trademark at
issue, and that the assignee was the exclusive distributor of such goods in the
United States, whereas here VNA was created pursuant to the 1992 Agreement,
and VNA competed with EAI prior to the Assignment Agreement. Moreover, EAI
points out that it has been distributing Vittoria-branded bicycle tires in the United
States for a longer period of time than VNA, and that EAI never obtained its
products directly from VNA.
The purpose for requiring transfer of goodwill along with the transfer of
the trade or service mark is to ensure that consumers receive accurate information
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about the product or service associated with the mark. Sugar Busters LLC v.
Brennan, 177 F.3d 258, 265 (5th Cir. 1999) (“The purpose of the rule prohibiting
the sale or assignment of a trademark in gross is to prevent a consumer from
being misled or confused as to the source and nature of the goods or service that
he or she acquires.”); E. & J. Gallo Winery v. Gallo Cattle Co., 967 F.2d 1280,
1289 (9th Cir. 1992); Patterson Labs., Inc. v. Roman Cleanser Co. (In re Roman
Cleanser Co.), 802 F.2d 207, 208-09 (6th Cir. 1986); Marshak v. Green, 746 F.2d
927, 929 (2d Cir. 1984).
Transfer of assets is not a sine qua non for transferring the goodwill
associated with a trademark. See Sands, Taylor & Wood Co., 978 F.2d at 956
(stating that the “transfer of a mark need not be accompanied by the transfer of
any physical or tangible assets in order to be valid”). The Restatement (Third) of
Unfair Competition explains:
[C]ourts now evaluate each assignment in light of the circumstances
of the particular case, including both the terms of the transfer and the
nature of the assignee’s subsequent use. Recent decisions recognize
that the central enquiry is whether the use of the mark by the
assignee is likely to confuse prospective purchasers by departing
from the expectations created by the presence of the trademark. The
traditional requirement of accompanying transfer of goodwill can
thus be understood as requiring that the assignment not disrupt the
existing significance of the mark to consumers.
Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition § 34, cmt. b (1995); see also J.
Thomas McCarthy, McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition, § 18:24
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(4th ed. 1997). “The courts have upheld such assignments if they find that the
assignee is producing a product or performing a service substantially similar to
that of the assignor and that the consumers would not be deceived or harmed.”
Marshak, 746 F.2d at 930 (citations omitted); see also Sugar Busters, 177 F.3d at
266; Defiance Button Mach. Co. v. C&C Metal Prods. Corp., 759 F.2d 1053, 1059
(2d Cir. 1985) (“[A] trademark may be validly transferred without the
simultaneous transfer of any tangible assets, as long as the recipient continues to
produce goods of the same quality and nature previously associated with the
mark.” (citation omitted)); VISA U.S.A., Inc. v. Birmingham Trust Nat’l Bank,
696 F.2d 1371, 1376 (Fed. Cir. 1982) (“[T]ransfer of goodwill requires only that
the service be sufficiently similar to prevent consumers of the service offered
under the mark from being misled from established associations with the mark.”
(quotations omitted)).
In this case, VNA’s actions both prior and subsequent to the transfer of the
Vittoria trademark were calculated to maintain continuity in the use of the mark
and the public’s perceptions of the products associated with it. The record shows
that VNA took significant steps throughout its use of the trademark to ensure that
the mark continued to signify high-end racing tires for bicycles. VNA placed
advertisements, sponsored professional athletes, attended trade shows, and
developed a marketing network consisting of 25 to 30 sales representatives who
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promoted these tires to approximately 6,000 bicycle dealers. Significantly, EAI
has never alleged any sort of disruption in the kind or quality of the products
associated with the Vittoria trademark, and we could find no evidence of any such
break upon our independent review of the record. We therefore hold the
Assignment Agreement constitutes a valid transfer of the rights to use the Vittoria
trademark in the United States.
C. The Common Control Exception
We next consider whether, in spite of a valid transfer of the trademark from
Vittoria Italy to VNA, a regulatory exception to the Act removes VNA from the
scope of its gray market protections. The regulation in question, 19 C.F.R. §
133.23(d)(1), reads, in relevant part:
Gray market goods subject to the restrictions of this section shall be
detained for 30 days from the date on which the goods are presented
for Customs examination, to permit the importer to establish that any
of the following exceptions . . . are applicable:
(1) The trademark or trade name was applied under the authority of a
. . . trade name owner who is the same as the U.S. owner, a parent or
subsidiary of the U.S. owner, or a party otherwise subject to common
ownership or control with the U.S. owner (in an instance covered by
§ 133.2(d) and 133.12(d) of this part).
EAI does not allege that VNA is the same as Vittoria Italy, is a parent or
subsidiary of Vittoria Italy, or that it is subject to common ownership with
Vittoria Italy. Rather, EAI argues that the evidence is sufficient to show common
control of the two companies or control of VNA by Vittoria Italy.
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For the purpose of applying § 133.23(d)(1), common control is defined as
“effective control in policy and operations and is not necessarily synonymous
with common ownership.” 19 C.F.R. § 133.2(d)(2); see also United States v.
Eighty-Three Rolex Watches, 992 F.2d 508, 516 (5th Cir. 1993) (“the ties that
bind two entities with a profitable business relationship” do not constitute the
required “effective control”); United States v. Eighty-Nine Bottles of “Eau de
Joy”, 797 F.2d 767, 772 (9th Cir. 1986) (suggesting that “common control”
required “common ownership, operations or management.”). “[A] close and
profitable business relationship” does not amount to common control. Eighty-
Three Rolex Watches, 992 F.2d at 515. Rather, “[t]he regulatory language makes
clear that it contemplates the sort of control that a parent corporation would
exercise over a subsidiary or that a common owner might exercise over both
organizations.” Eighty-Nine Bottles of “Eau de Joy”, 797 F.2d at 771.
In this case, EAI asserts genuine questions of material fact exist with
respect to the following allegations: (1) VNA and Vittoria Italy work in concert to
design, develop and distribute Vittoria products; (2) VNA and Vittoria Italy make
joint decisions as to “present and future product ranges”; (3) Vittoria Italy sells
Vittoria-branded products directly to original equipment manufacturers in the
United States; (4) Vittoria Italy pays a significant percentage of VNA’s
advertising budget and exercises some measure of control over VNA’s marketing
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of Vittoria products; (5) Vittoria Italy determines which product lines VNA is
allowed to market in the United States; (6) Vittoria Italy reimburses VNA for
nearly all of its liability for warranty claims on Vittoria products; (7) Vittoria
Italy’s catalog lists VNA as its “U.S. distributor”; and (8) the president and CEO
of Vittoria Italy, Rudie Campagne (“Campagne”), makes decisions about
employees of VNA as well as a sister company of VNA called XLM. Although
these allegations show a “close and profitable business relationship,” they fall
short of establishing “common control” as defined in 19 C.F.R. § 133.2(d).
For example, allegations of joint decision making and cooperative efforts to
develop and market products for the United States at most give rise to an
inference that a close business relationship exists between VNA and Vittoria
Italy. Indeed, such cooperative planning is required by the 1992 Agreement.
(Aplt. App. at 39, ¶ 4.2.) Similarly, Vittoria Italy’s reimbursing VNA for
warranty liabilities does not give rise to an inference of control. While Vittoria
Italy provides funding to support VNA’s advertising, Vittoria Italy has no legal
control over how those funds are spent. EAI’s evidence that Vittoria Italy
controls VNA’s employment decisions apparently consists of a single e-mail from
Campagne expressing his disapproval with VNA’s management team and a
“strong request” that it rehire a retired former officer of the company, which it
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did. Again, this is not evidence of control, but only evidence of VNA’s
understandable desire to preserve a good business relationship with Vittoria Italy.
VNA is referred to as the U.S. distributor for the “Vittoria Group” in the
catalog. However, deposition testimony by VNA executives explains that the
term “Vittoria Group” is a collective, descriptive term used to refer to several
independent companies, each of which is somehow engaged in the production or
sale of Vittoria products. In contrast, EAI has offered no evidence of any legal
authority enabling Vittoria Italy or any other party to control VNA’s actions.
EAI relies on a concurrence by Justice Brennan in K Mart Corp. v. Cartier,
Inc., discussing the legislative history behind the Act and concluding that
“Congress did not intend to extend § 526’s protections to affiliates of foreign
manufacturers.” 486 U.S. at 297. Justice Brennan observed that Congress’s
intent was to protect only domestic interests, and that “[t]he barriers that
Congress erected . . . . are fragile barriers indeed if a foreign manufacturer might
bypass them by the simple device of incorporating a shell domestic subsidiary
and transferring to it a single asset – the United States trademark.” Id. at 298.
We believe EAI reads too much into Justice Brennan’s concurrence by
attempting to apply the descriptive word “affiliate” to this context. First,
extending the common control exception to companies who merely work together
under cooperative contractual arrangements would not advance the two policy
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considerations for § 526 that Justice Brennan identified in his concurrence. The
first of these is that independent U.S. entities which acquire rights to trademarks
have significantly greater investment-backed expectations at stake than
subsidiaries or other “affiliates” of foreign manufacturers. 486 U.S. at 302.
However, close but independent business allies are also likely to have invested
significant financial and human capital into their endeavors, as the record shows
to be the case here. Second, Justice Brennan contrasted independent U.S.
trademark holders with those covered by the common control exception because,
in the latter case, the foreign manufacturer can protect its U.S. marketing efforts
simply by restricting who can purchase the product and where those customers
can subsequently export it. Id. The same cannot be said of U.S. trademark
owners associated with foreign manufacturers only by virtue of a contract or
other cooperative arrangement rather than by “common control.” While close
business allies may hope to persuade their partners to adopt such controls,
without more they are not able to force an unwilling foreign manufacturer to
protect them from gray market importers. Such is the case here.
Finally, we find no evidence that VNA and Vittoria Italy have engaged in
fraud or otherwise have attempted to subvert the limits Congress placed on
§ 526’s protections. Although EAI alleges that VNA was created “at the behest”
of Vittoria Italy, it points to no evidence that the agreement leading to the
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creation of VNA was anything but an arm’s-length transaction between the
Hibdon Tire Center and Vittoria Italy. Further, there is no evidence that Vittoria
Italy has any legal authority to control VNA’s actions, and no evidence of other
connections between them such as interlocking officers or directors.
In sum, we hold that EAI has failed to demonstrate the existence of genuine
questions of material fact sufficient to implicate the common control exception to
the Act.
D. Denial of Leave to File Surrebuttal
EAI’s final assignment of error flows from the district court’s grant of
VNA’s motion to file a reply brief in support of its motion for partial summary
judgment to respond to points raised in EAI’s answer brief to the motion. VNA’s
reply brief incorporated by reference an earlier submission in the case, and it
contained references to some evidence that was not specifically referenced in
VNA’s initial motion for partial summary judgment, although the evidence was
previously before the court. Finally, VNA’s reply brief contained evidence
pertaining to its registration of its trademark with the U.S. Customs Service. EAI
moved unsuccessfully to file a surrebuttal to respond to the new evidence not
specifically discussed in VNA’s initial summary judgment motion.
On appeal, we review the district court’s decision denying EAI’s request to
file a surrebuttal for abuse of discretion. See Beaird v. Seagate Tech., Inc., 145
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F.3d 1159, 1164-65 (10th Cir. 1998). “Under the abuse of discretion standard, a
trial court’s decision will not be disturbed unless we have a definite and firm
conviction that the lower court has made a clear error of judgment or exceeded
the bounds of permissible choice in the circumstances.” Id. at 1164 (internal
quotation and alteration omitted).
EAI does not allege that VNA’s reply brief contained any new legal
arguments in favor of summary judgment. Further, most of the alleged new
factual evidence in VNA’s reply brief was either not relied upon by the district
court or was cumulative of other evidence that was already before the court. EAI
does not show why it could not have included in its initial responsive brief any
further factual evidence that would have been helpful to its position. More
importantly, EAI does not even now clearly set forth what additional evidence it
would have included had it been allowed to file a surrebuttal brief nor does it
explain how such new evidence, if any, would have defeated VNA’s motion for
summary judgment. Accordingly, we find no reversible error in this regard.
III. CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth herein, we AFFIRM the grant of partial summary
judgment for VNA.
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