Pizza Hut, Inc. v. Papa John’s International U.S. Court of Appeals 5 th Circuit

Facts 2

Pizza Hut –False claim of superior ingredients –Undertook campaign to improve its pizza using more and better quality ingredients 3

Papa John’s –further emphasized message of superiority by focusing on specific ingredients Claimed “fresh pack” method of producing tomato paste was superior to “most big chains” and “most pizza delivery chains” Adopted new method of manufacturing dough (using ozonated filtered water) specifically for purpose of drawing negative comparisons to Pizza Hut 4

Papa John’s –continued to use “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” in connection with more specific claims about sauce and dough 5

Pizza Hut –sued to enjoin Papa John’s from deceptive claims regarding sauce and crust using slogan 6

District Court Sauce and dough superiority claims false –“ambiguous and self-laudatory, consistent with the legal definition of non-actionable puffing” –By combining it with other, false claims, slogan became tainted –Made claim of superiority quantifiable Enjoined its use 7

Court of Appeals –“Best Pizza Under One Roof” (Pizza Hut) –“Nobody Delivers Better” (Dominos) –“Best Pizza on the Block” (Donatos) –“Best Pizza Ever” (Pizza Inn) 8

–“The Best Beer in America” –“The most advanced home gaming system in the universe” 9

Held: Ads making misleading claims about superiority of dough and sauce tainted general claim of superiority 31 of 278 ads Rejected claim that misleading specific claims became “encoded” in consumers’ mind Reversed 10