Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes & of Malta v. Fla. Priory the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem

809 F.3d 1171

SOVEREIGN MILITARY HOSPITALLER ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM OF RHODES AND OF MALTA, Plaintiff–Counter Defendant–Appellant,

v.The FLORIDA PRIORY OF THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS OF THE SOVEREIGN ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM, KNIGHTS OF MALTA, THE ECUMENICAL ORDER, Defendant–Counter Claimant–Appellee.

No. 14–14251.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Oct. 15, 2015.

David Zachary Hudson, Paul D. Clement, Viet Dinh, Bancroft, PLLC, Washington, DC, Jose Felix Diaz, Akerman, LLP, Miami, FL, Michael K. Grace, Grace & Grace, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, Luis M. O'Naghten, Baker & Mckenzie, LLP, Miami, FL, for Plaintiff–Counter Defendant–Appellant.

Robin I. Bresky, Joanne Rose Telischi, Law Offices of Robin Bresky, Boca Raton, FL, Denise J. Bleau, Ward Damon Posner Pheterson & Bleau, PL, West Palm Beach, FL, Joseph Rodman Steele, Jr., Duane Morris, LLP, Boca Raton, FL, for Defendant–Counter Claimant–Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before MARCUS, WILLIAM PRYOR, and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

WILLIAM PRYOR, Circuit Judge:

This appeal is the second in a long-running intellectual property dispute between two religious organizations. The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta alleges that the Florida Priory of the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, the Ecumenical Order is infringing its registered service marks in violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1114, and Florida law. After a bench trial, the district court entered judgment for the Florida Priory. See Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes & of Malta v. Fla. Priory of the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, the Ecumenical Order (SMOM I ), 816 F.Supp.2d 1290, 1307–08 (S.D.Fla.2011). In the first appeal, we reversed in part and remanded for the district court to reconsider whether the parties' marks are likely to be confused. See Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes & of Malta v. Fla. Priory of the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, the Ecumenical Order (SMOM II), 702 F.3d 1279, 1297–98 (11th Cir.2012). We were also critical of disparaging comments that the district judge made about the parties. On remand, the district court misapplied several factors in its analysis of likely confusion, incorrectly assessed the Florida Priory's defense of prior use, relied on historical testimony that we previously deemed inadmissible, and misinterpreted our instructions about consulting facts outside the record. Because the district court erred again, we reverse again. But we deny the Sovereign Order's request to reassign the case to a different district judge.

I. BACKGROUND

For purposes of background, we identify the parties to this litigation and the marks in dispute. We also review the relevant procedural history. For an even fuller account, see our previous opinion, SMOM II, 702 F.3d at 1283–89.

A. The Parties

The plaintiff is the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta. It is a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church. The Sovereign Order is headquartered in Rome, Italy, and it performs charitable works across the globe. For example, the Sovereign Order supports the operation of the Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem and several medical clinics in Haiti.

The defendant is the Florida Priory of the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, the Ecumenical Order. It too is a religious charitable organization. The Florida Priory is associated with a parent organization, the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, the Ecumenical Order. The Ecumenical Order is not associated with any one church or branch of Christianity.

B. The Marks

This litigation involves five of the Sovereign Order's registered service marks: one design mark and four word marks. The Sovereign Order's design mark is an eight-pointed Maltese cross on a shield:

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The Sovereign Order's word marks are:

Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta

Knights of Malta

Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem

Order of St. John of Jerusalem

The Sovereign Order's design mark and its first two word marks became "incontestable" in 2008 and 2009. That is, the Sovereign Order filed an affidavit with the United States Patent and Trademark Office attesting that it used the marks continuously for five years and satisfied the other statutory criteria for incontestability. See 15 U.S.C. § 1065.

The Sovereign Order alleges that the Florida Priory's name and symbol infringe its five registered service marks. The Florida Priory's name—"Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, the Ecumenical Order"—is unregistered. The Florida Priory's symbol is a white cross on a red shield, centered on a white Maltese cross with a red crown above it:

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Its registration is pending.

C. Procedural History

This litigation spans six years and consists of a bench-trial judgment, an appeal, a remand decision, and now a second appeal. We review the relevant procedural history below.

1. First District Court Decision

The Sovereign Order initiated this suit in 2009. It sued the Florida Priory for infringement and false advertising under the Lanham Act, unfair competition under Florida common law, and violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The Florida Priory disputed those claims. It also filed several counterclaims, seeking cancellation of the Sovereign Order's four word marks. The Florida Priory alleged that the Sovereign Order defrauded the Patent and Trademark Office by applying for registration without disclosing that a Delaware organization was already using similar marks.

After a bench trial in 2011, the district court ruled against the Sovereign Order and for the Florida Priory on their respective claims and counterclaims. The district court rejected the Sovereign Order's claim of false advertising. It found that the Florida Priory did not misrepresent the "nature, characteristics, qualities, or geographic origin" of its services, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)(1)(B), because the Sovereign Order and the Florida Priory "shared a history prior to 1798" and because the Florida Priory "expressly associates itself with the Ecumenical Order, a non-Catholic organization." SMOM I, 816 F.Supp.2d at 1302. In reaching its historical finding, the district court relied on the testimony of Nicholas F.S. Papanicolaou, the Prince Grand Master of the Ecumenical Order. With respect to the Florida Priory's counterclaims, the district court cancelled the Sovereign Order's word marks. It found that the Sovereign Order defrauded the Patent and Trademark Office because, at the time of registration, the Sovereign Order was "willfully blind" to the fact that the Delaware organization was already using similar marks. Id. at 1300. Because the Sovereign Order's word marks were cancelled, the district court concluded that its infringement claims for those marks failed as well. As for the design mark, the district court rejected the Sovereign Order's claim of infringement because it found the parties' marks visually distinguishable, "thus removing any possibility for consumer confusion." Id. at 1301. Finally, the district court rejected the Sovereign Order's claims under state law for the same reasons it rejected the Sovereign Order's claims of infringement. It added that the parties' word marks are not likely to be confused because "[t]he Court's own [Internet] research indicates that there are numerous Orders that use this type of terminology in their names." Id. at 1303 & n. 14.

2. First Appeal

In the first appeal, we affirmed in part and reversed in part. We affirmed the judgment for the Florida Priory on the Sovereign Order's claim of false advertising. We ruled that "the district court erred when it permitted Papanicolaou, a lay witness, to testily about historical matters." SMOM II, 702 F.3d at 1295. Papanicolaou was never "qualified as an expert witness" and could only testify about matters within his " ‘personal knowledge,’ " id. (quoting Fed.R.Evid. 602 ), which meant that the finding of the district court that the Sovereign Order and the Florida Priory "shared a history prior to 1798" was unsupported. Id. But we concluded that this error was harmless because the district court gave an "alternative ground" to support its decision—namely, that the Florida Priory is non-Catholic. Id.

We reversed with respect to the remaining claims and counterclaims. We reversed the cancellation of the Sovereign Order's word marks because the district court applied the wrong legal standard and because the Florida Priory failed to prove that the Sovereign Order had the requisite mental state for fraud. We also explained that the Patent and Trademark Office was not misled because, at the time of registration, the Sovereign Order successfully distinguished its marks by explaining they were service marks, unlike the Delaware organization's collective membership mark. We then reversed the judgment for the Florida Priory on the Sovereign Order's claims of infringement. The district court failed to apply the seven-factor balancing test required by our precedent. We remanded "so the district court [could] conduct the proper, multi-factor infringement analysis for the design marks ... [and] word marks." Id. at 1294 (footnote omitted). Because the Sovereign Order's state-law claims were tied to its infringement claims, we remanded those claims as well. We instructed the district court "to limit its analysis to facts in the record and to refrain from consulting outside sources on the Internet that have not been cited,...