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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
Edmund Burke


Davidoff v PLD International, 263 F.3d 1297 (11th Cir. 2001)

Davidoff & Cie, S.A., a Swiss corporation, is the manufacturer of DAVIDOFF COOL WATER fragrance products and owns the U.S. trademark. Davidoff & Cie, S.A. exclusively licenses Lancaster Group US LLC (collectively "Davidoff") to distribute its products to retailers in the United States. Working outside of this arrangement, PLD International Corporation ("PLD") acquires DAVIDOFF fragrances that are intended for overseas sale or that are sold in duty-free sales. PLD then distributes them to discount retail stores in the United States.

At the time that PLD acquires the product, the original codes on the bottom of the boxes are covered by white stickers, and batch codes on the bottles themselves have been obliterated with an etching tool. The etching leaves a mark on the bottle near its base on the side opposite the DAVIDOFF COOL WATER printing. The mark is approximately one and one-eighth inches in length and one-eighth of an inch wide. The batch codes are removed, according to PLD, to prevent Davidoff from discovering who sold the fragrances to PLD because Davidoff would stop selling to those vendors.

Davidoff filed a complaint seeking, inter alia, a preliminary injunction against PLD for infringement of its trademark under the Lanham Trade-Mark Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq. Davidoff alleged that PLD's distribution of the fragrances with the batch codes removed and obliterated constituted infringement. The district court held that PLD's distribution of DAVIDOFF fragrances constituted infringement by creating a likelihood of consumer confusion. In reaching this conclusion, the district court found that the product distributed by PLD differed from the genuine DAVIDOFF product because the removal of the batch code from the bottle by etching the glass "constitutes alteration of a product," which would create a likelihood of consumer confusion. A consumer might believe that a product had been harmed or tampered with.

Court of appeals affirmed.

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