Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
423 F.3d 539 (2005)
Gibson (plaintiff) held a trademark on its famous Les Paul guitar's solid-body, single-cutaway shape, registered in 1990; when PRS (defendant) began making guitars in a similar style with slightly different proportions starting in 2000, Gibson sued for infringement, admitting there was no evidence of actual consumer confusion but arguing consumers might briefly mistake a PRS guitar for a Gibson from across a room before realizing otherwise upon closer inspection. The district court granted Gibson an injunction based on this initial-interest confusion theory, and PRS appealed.
Whether, if a product's shape is trademarked, initial-interest confusion occurs simply because a consumer, from a distance, may confuse a competing product with the trademarked product due to their similar shapes.