The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Monday ruled in favor of the New Orleans Saints against a man who asserted that he and his family own property rights to the fleur-de-lis, which the Saints use as their logo, because he is a “direct descendant of the Kings of France (Scotland, Aragon, and Castille).”
Michel J. Messier, whom the appellate court said is from Rutland, Vt., has now lost at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and at the Federal Circuit in his quest for the Saints’ registration of the fleur-de-lis design mark to be canceled.
Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore, Judge Sharon Prost and Judge Leonard P. Stark explained that Messier lacked standing to bring an appeal and thus dismissed his case.
The Saints have used a fleur-de-lis mark since they started playing in the NFL in 1967. The team also secured a trademark registration from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the mark in 1974. The Saints were granted use in connection with “entertainment services in the form of professional football games and exhibition.”
Fleur-de-lis is French for “flower of the lily” or “lily flower.” As detailed by Fleur-de-lis Designs, the fleur-de-lis has traditionally “been used to represent French royalty” and is “said to signify perfection, light, and life.” Some say King Louis VI (others claim it was King Louis VII) was the first French monarch “to use the fleur-de-lis on his shield” in the 12th century. One legend says that fleur-de-lis stems from an angel presenting Clovis, “the Merovingian king of the Franks,” with a gift of “a golden lily” that symbolized his “purification upon his conversion to Christianity.”
In the contemporary United States, the fleur-de-lis has a less divine presence when Saints players tackle other teams’ players—but that has legal significance, the judges note. Under trademark law, Messier must show (among other things) that he suffered an actual or imminent injury caused by the Saints. The judges emphasize that Messier hasn’t “alleged that he or his family make, offer for sale or sell any products or services using a fleur-de-lis design,” or that he’s involved in entertainment services connected to football. He therefore didn’t suffer a type of injury trademark law can redress.
The judges also weren’t persuaded that Messier’s “references to the Saints Mark being confusingly similar to his family’s private use of fleur-de-lis designs, now and for several centuries,” confer him standing. Likewise, the judges found his “speculation that in the future he may license fleur-de-lis marks” insufficient because they “at best” allude to “hypothetical” or “future possible injury,” which do not provide standing.
Attorney Julie S. Goldemberg of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius successfully argued for the Saints.
