Mobil Oil Corp. v. Pegasus Petroleum Corp.
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
818 F.2d 254 (1987)
Mobil Oil Corporation (plaintiff) owned a registered trademark for its well-known flying-horse (Pegasus) logo, though it did not use that logo in its separate oil-trading business, which relied heavily on cold calls and a seller's reputation among sophisticated industry buyers. In 1981, Pegasus Petroleum Corporation (defendant) entered the oil-trading business using a logo of interlocking Ps and a name evoking the same mythological winged horse as Mobil's mark. Mobil sued for trademark infringement; both sides submitted consumer surveys on actual confusion, and the district court ruled for Mobil, prompting Pegasus's appeal.
Whether the probability that a potential purchaser would be misled into an initial interest in a product, based on a trademark's similarity to a senior mark, is sufficient to support a finding of likelihood of confusion.