Jack Daniel's Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC

Summary

The Supreme Court held that the Rogers test does not apply when a defendant uses a trademark as a source identifier, so infringement must be analyzed under the ordinary likelihood‑of‑confusion standard, and that the Lanham Act’s noncommercial‑use exclusion does not shield a parody that uses a famous mark to identify the source of the defendant’s own goods. The Court vacated the Ninth Circuit’s judgment and remanded for further proceedings.