SAGAN v. APPLE COMPUTER, INC.
874 F.Supp. 1072 (1994)
United States District Court, C.D. California.
June 27, 1994.
At the foundation of Defendant's argument here is its contention that in order for Plaintiff to recover under the first four causes of action he has alleged, Plaintiff must allege and ultimately prove that Defendant used Plaintiff's name to promote the sale of personal computers in commerce.
Plaintiff's first claim is under the Lanham Act. The Lanham Act states:
Any person who, on or in connection with any goods or services, ... uses in commerce any ... name ... which —
(A) is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person, or as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of his or her goods, services, or commercial activities by another person, or
(B) in commercial advertising or promotion, misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities, or geographic origin of his or her or another person's goods, services or commercial activities,
shall be liable in a civil action by any person who believes that he or she is or is likely to be damaged by such act.
15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)(1). Thus, the Lanham Act requires Plaintiff to show that Defendant used Plaintiff's name "in commerce." Defendant argues that Plaintiff's third claim for unfair competition requires the same averment of use in commerce as the Lanham Act. Thus, according to Defendant, the analysis of the Lanham Act claim applies to Plaintiff's unfair competition claim as well.
1. Sagan attempts to introduce a newspaper article containing the alleged defamatory statement. (Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss, Exhibit A.) However, this Court's analysis is limited to the four corners of the complaint. Nevertheless, consideration of the article would not help Sagan's position. Sagan asserts that the article implies facts which are capable of being proven false. If this is true, then Sagan's action lies against the publisher of the article, and not Defendant herein.
2. Although Milkovich limits Ault in other ways, it does not upset this portion of the Ault ruling.
3. This would explain the quotation marks Plaintiff places around the words "code name" in Paragraphs 11 and 12 — i.e., Plaintiff was simply quoting what he had been told.
4. See also Eastwood v. Superior Court,149 Cal.App.3d 409, 416, 198 Cal.Rptr. 342 (1983) (cause of action for common law commercial appropriation of right of publicity rested on appropriation branch of law of privacy).