The court of appeals affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded a district court judgment. The court held that a district court’s determination of whether trademark owners acquiesced to an infringer’s use of the trademark required consideration of the reasonableness of the infringer’s reliance on acts by the trademark owner which might be deemed to support a finding of acquiescence.
Joe Kennedy owned the Kennedy Center for Real Estate Education, Inc. (KCREE) Kennedy also created an educational curriculum called the Accredited Seller Representative (ASR) program. He and KCREE developed and registered several trademarks for the ASR program. Kennedy and KCREE licensed the program for use in third-party real estate schools.