The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a permanent injunction granted to Gibson Guitar Corp. preventing Paul Reed Smith Guitars (PRS) from manufacturing, selling, or distributing their “Singlecut” line of guitars. Gibson brought suit against PRS claiming that their Singlecut guitars infringed on the trademarked body shape of Gibson’s Les Paul guitar line. Although they conceded that no purchaser would be confused at the point of sale, Gibson argued that either the doctrine of initial-interest confusion or post-sale confusion, or a combination of the two, should be allowed to substitute for the point-of-sale confusion requirement.Initial-interest confusion involves the improper use of a trademark to create initial customer interest in a product and applies even if the customer realizes the product is not manufactured by the trademark holder prior to purchase. This doctrine has mainly been applied in the context of Internet domain names, but Gibson argued that it should apply here on the trademark of their guitar shape because a customer entering a guitar store might see PRS guitars on the far side of the room and approach them thinking they were Gibson guitars, thereby diverting potential Gibson customers to PRS. The court refused to apply the initial-interest confusion doctrine to product-shape trademarks, holding that because many consumer products would look alike if viewed at a sufficient distance, such an extension of the doctrine would have severe anti-competitive effects.