Wire
Fifth Circuit narrows TROJAN ban to products with actual confusion
Judges said confusion was shown in golf carts and golf-cart batteries, not across every product line. The defendants still face the trademark ruling and profits award, but the injunction must be narrowed.
Trojan Battery won its trademark case in the federal Fifth Circuit, but it could not turn that victory into a blanket ban. The court affirmed the liability judgment and the profits award, then vacated the permanent injunction because it barred Golf Carts of Cypress and the other defendants from using the TROJAN marks, or any mark containing TROJAN, on any goods or services.
The judges said that remedy did not match the harm they found. The confusion evidence was tied to golf carts and golf-cart batteries, not every product or service the defendants might sell under the TROJAN name. The case now goes back for further proceedings so the injunction can be narrowed.
Where the ban went too far
The district court’s order did not just stop the defendants from using TROJAN in the golf-cart business. It reached across the board, blocking the name on any good or in connection with any service. That kind of sweep mattered because trademark remedies are supposed to fit the actual record, not just the strength of the underlying win.
The Fifth Circuit said unrelated products outside the golf industry were unlikely to confuse buyers. On that record, a market-wide ban was too much, and the district court abused its discretion by issuing it.
A win that still has limits
Trojan Battery keeps the core judgment saying it prevailed, and it keeps the profits award too. What it lost was the chance to use that win as a free pass to police the TROJAN name everywhere at once.
For businesses facing trademark injunctions, the lesson is plain: proving infringement in one slice of the market does not automatically justify a ban that reaches far beyond it. The court also rejected using a safe-distance theory to support such a broad restriction here.