A federal judge decided on Tuesday that cruise giant Carnival Cruise Lines cannot block much smaller SeaEscape Casino Cruises from using "fun" in its slogans and advertising.
The ruling Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno revives a $1 million ad campaign SeaEscape launched in March to promote non-gambling activities on its cruises to nowhere.
Three months after SeaEscape began using "SeaEscape to a Ship Full of Fun,"
Miami based Carnival sued, saying consumers would confuse the companies because of similarities to Carnival's "Fun Ship" trademark.
Moreno ruled that although Carnival established that SeaEscape intended to benefit to some degree from the "Fun Ship" mark, consumers were unlikely to confuse the cruise products.
Carnival is a $3-billion-a-year company that has 14 ships and its main product is weeklong cruises in the Caribbean and elsewhere. SeaEscape operates a single ship from Port Everglades on six-hour gambling cruises, Moreno said.
"The court concludes the average consumer is not likely to become confused or deceived as to the source of the product or into thinking that Carnival and SeaEscape are affiliated after seeing or hearing the slogan "SeaEscape to a Ship Full of Fun," the ruling said.
Likewise, Moreno ruled against Carnival's claim that the slogan dilutes the value of the "Fun Ship" trademark. Carnival failed to show "Fun Ship" is sufficiently famous to warrant protection from dilution, he said.
Attorney John Cyril Malloy III, who represented SeaEscape, said the decision was a victory for common sense. "The court intuitively concluded that one company cannot own the word fun across the broad entertainment industry. These are entirely different services. One is a vacation and the other is like a night on the town."
Jennifer de la Cruz, a Carnival spokeswoman, said the line was disappointed in the ruling and was weighing its options.
"Within the ruling, the judge recognized that Carnival is obligated to vigorously protect its trademarks and that failure to bring the suit might have harmed our future trademark rights," she said.
Tom Stieghorst can be reached at tstieghorst@sunsentinel.corn or 305-810-5008.
Copyright (c) 1999, The South Florida Sun Sentinel
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