A moron in a hurry
A moron in a hurry is a phrase that has been used in legal cases, especially in the UK, involving trademark infringement and passing off. Where one party alleges that another (the defendant) has infringed their intellectual property rights by offering for sale a product that is confusably similar to their own, the court has to decide whether a reasonable person would be misled by the defendant's trademark or the get-up of their product. It has been held that "if only a moron in a hurry would be misled" the case is not made out.[1] Although this formulation addresses only fairly extreme instances of confusability, and says nothing about less clear examples, the phrase is sometimes referred to as a "test".[2]
UK
Origin
The phrase was first used by
Later examples
The phrase was quoted in the same context in Newsweek Inc. v British Broadcasting Corp. [1979] R.P.C. 441 by
In 2006 the phrase was used in legal argument in the case of
Canada
In Canada the phrase was first considered in C.M.S. Industries Ltd. v. UAP Inc. (2002 SKQB 303), where the court held that UAP had infringed the plaintiff's trademark.
Pakistan
In 2017 the Sindh High Court used the "moron in a hurry" test as one of several approaches to compare competing syrup drink products. The plaintiff, owner of the well known ROOH AFZA trademark, sued a company who had started selling a very similar product under the mark ROOH-E-SAMAR. The court held that the respective marks were similar, and that a less than prudent customer would undoubtedly be deceived given the minute differences between the colour of the band and the placement of fruits on the respective wrappers.[2]
United States
Attorney
See also
- Man on the Clapham omnibus
- Reasonable person ("Reasonable man")
- Passing off
References
- OCLC 24212824.
- ^ a b Manssor, Seema S (31 July 2017). "High court uses 'moron in a hurry', Lapp and classic trinity tests to decide trademark infringement case". Lexology. Archived from the original on 4 January 2022. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-55022-501-3. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
- ISSN 1756-1000.(subscription required)
- ISSN 0080-1364.
- ^ Choo, Han Teck (18 January 2002). "The Polo/Lauren Company L.P. v United States Polo Association". www.singaporelaw.sg. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
- ^ Associated Press (31 March 2006). "Apple Defends Its Use of Logo on iTunes Store". The New York Times.
- ^ "C.M.S. Industries Ltd. v. UAP Inc., SKQB 303 (CanLII) 2002". 22 July 2002. Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
- ^ "Mattel, Inc. v. 3894207 Canada Inc., 2006 SCC 22, [2006] 1 SCR 772". 2006. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
- ^ Anderson, Nate (30 September 2009). "Memes strike back: Gerbils, gay blood elves, and Glenn Beck". Ars Technica.