Slep-Tone Entertainment Corp. v. Wired for Sound Karaoke, No. 14-17229 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseSlep-Tone produces karaoke music tracks marketed under the trademark "Sound Choice" on encoded compact discs (CD-G). Plaintiffs filed suit against defendants for, inter alia, trademark infringement after finding out that defendants were using unauthorized media-shifted files instead of Slep-Tone's original CD-Gs. The district court granted defendant's motion to dismiss. Slep-Tone argues that, by "media-shifting" its tracks from physical CD-Gs to digital files and performing them without authorization, defendants committed trademark infringement and unfair competition under the Lanham Act,15 U.S.C. 1114, 1125. The court agreed with the Seventh Circuit's holding that "the ‘good’ whose ‘origin’ is material for purposes of a trademark infringement claim is the ‘tangible product sold in the marketplace’ rather than the creative content of that product." Therefore, the court concluded that Slep-Tone failed to plausibly allege consumer confusion over the origin of a good properly cognizable in a claim of trademark infringement. Accordingly, the court affirmed as to this issue. In a concurrently filed memorandum opinion, the court also reversed in part and remanded in part.
Court Description: Lanham Act. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of claims for trademark infringement and unfair competition brought under the Lanham Act by a producer of karaoke music tracks. The plaintiff alleged that the defendants performed karaoke shows using unauthorized “media-shifted” files that had been copied onto computer hard drives from the compact discs released by the plaintiff. Agreeing with the Seventh Circuit, the panel held that the plaintiff did not state a claim under the Lanham Act because there was no likelihood of consumer confusion about the origin of a good properly cognizable in a claim of trademark infringement. In a concurrently filed memorandum disposition, the panel reversed the district court’s summary judgment on a claim for breach of a settlement agreement. Judge Hurwitz concurred in part and dissented in part from the memorandum disposition. SLEP-TONE ENTM’T V. WIRED FOR SOUND 3
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.