Sunenblick v. Harrell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 5 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “customers of musical recordings are necessarily discriminating as between jazz and hip-hop, and are not likely to suffer confusion in the same manner as customers who might purchase less easily differentiated goods bearing confusingly similar trademarks. Recalling once more that the relevant inquiry under Polaroid is whether a given factor sheds light on the likelihood of confusion, the court agrees with defendants that buyers of musical recordings are relatively sophisticated consumers whose purchasing decisions are driven by á recognition of and search for a particular artist or composition, and whose awareness of the record label — if such awareness even exists at the time of purchase — is at best a peripheral concern compared to the contents of the recording.... The notion that customers typically enter a record store with the request, ‘Please show me the MCA records’, or ‘Where can one find your Deutsche Gram/mophon CD’s’ is simply counter-intuitive. 895 F.Supp. at 634”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 326 F. Supp. 2d 481 - Strange Music, Inc. v. Strange Music, Inc. · 590 F. Supp. 2d 548 - Medici Classics Productions LLC v. Medici Group LLC

2. “Sunenblick’s products are addressed to a somewhat esoteric market, viz., purchasers interested in lost or forgotten jazz artists, in the “straight ahead jazz” category, whereas defendants sell rap recordings. The record favors defendants in this regard. Although the products are sold in the same channels of trade, they are not sold side-by-side; rather, they are featured in different sections of the stores in which they are sold, according to genre and not by label name. (R. 687-88; 690-91). Hence, absent any evidence that consumers of one will be potential consumers of the other, it is most likely that the consumer entering a record store with the intention of purchasing one of Dr. Sunenblick’s products would not even see defendants’ products, much less the trademarks appearing thereon. Sunenblick v. Harrell, 895 F.Supp. 616, 629 (S.D.N.Y.1995).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 307 F. Supp. 2d 1116 - Echo Drain v. Newsted

3. “an ordinary purchaser examining [plaintiffs] products would not, upon examining his trademark (if indeed that purchaser were even to pay any attention whatsoever to the mark) be led immediately to the conclusion that the music recorded therein was ‘straight ahead jazz’ or even jazz at all. Nor would the ordinary purchaser of [defendant’s] music be led immediately to the conclusion that his music described a particular form of music. In each case, some degree of imagination, perhaps assisted by consideration of the product itself, would be required for such purchasers to invest the respective marks with their intended mental association. Id. (emphasis in original)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 326 F. Supp. 2d 481 - Strange Music, Inc. v. Strange Music, Inc.