Cite as: 532 U. S. 424 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
I
The parties are competing tool manufacturers. In the 1980's, Leatherman Tool Group, Inc. (Leatherman or respondent), introduced its Pocket Survival Tool (PST). The Court of Appeals described the PST as an
"ingenious multi-function pocket tool which improves on the classic 'Swiss army knife' in a number of respects. Not the least of the improvements was the inclusion of pliers, which, when unfolded, are nearly equivalent to regular full-sized pliers. . . . Leatherman apparently largely created and undisputedly now dominates the market for multi-function pocket tools which generally resemble the PST." Leatherman Tool Group, Inc. v. Cooper Industries, 199 F. 3d 1009, 1010 (CA9 1999).
In 1995, Cooper Industries, Inc. (Cooper or petitioner), decided to design and market a competing multifunction tool. Cooper planned to copy the basic features of the PST, add a few features of its own, and sell the new tool under the name "ToolZall." Cooper hoped to capture about 5% of the multi-function tool market. The first ToolZall was designed to be virtually identical to the PST,1 but the design was ultimately modified in response to this litigation. The controversy to be resolved in this case involves Cooper's improper advertising of its original ToolZall design.
Cooper introduced the original ToolZall in August 1996 at the National Hardware Show in Chicago. At that show, it used photographs in its posters, packaging, and advertising materials that purported to be of a ToolZall but were actually of a modified PST. When those materials were prepared, the first of the ToolZalls had not yet been manufac-1 The ToolZall was marked with a different name than the PST, was held together with different fasteners, and, in the words of the Court of Appeals, "included a serrated blade and certain other small but not particularly visible differences." Leatherman Tool Group, Inc. v. Cooper Industries, 199 F. 3d 1009, 1010 (CA9 1999).
427
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