FIU Loses Appeal In Trademark Infringement Case

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - A federal appeals court has rejected a trademark-infringement lawsuit filed by Florida International University against the for-profit Florida National University.

The public Florida International University filed the lawsuit after the name of the other school was changed in 2012 from Florida National College to Florida National University.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of Florida National University, prompting the public university to appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But in a 50-page ruling, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the district judge's decision. In part, the appeals court pointed to 12 other schools in the state that use the words "Florida" and "University" in their names, including Florida Memorial University in Miami-Dade.

Also, it cited different definitions of the words "international" and "national" in backing the district judge.

"Moreover, in a crowded field of similar acronyms, the district court reasonably found that the addition of one more school identifying itself with an acronym containing the letters F and U would not materially add to the confusion," said the appeals-court ruling, written by Judge Stanley Marcus. "This is especially true in a field like post-secondary education, where the primary consumers --- potential students (and likely their parents too) --- generally spend a substantial amount of time and energy learning about their options before choosing a school and are, therefore, unlikely to be confused by similar names."

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.