Powell

MEMORANDUM **

The Five Platters, Inc. (“FPI”) and Personality Productions, Inc. (“PPI”) (collec *795 tively, “the plaintiffs” or “the appellees”) brought this action against the defendants Monroe Powell and his company Rowil Entertainment (“Rowil”) 3 (collectively, “the defendants” or “the appellants”) alleging breach of contract and infringement of the trademark “The Platters” (“the trademark”) by Powell. The defendants appeal several orders of the district court. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 1292(a)(1), and we affirm in part and reverse in part. The parties are familiar with the facts and the procedural history of the litigation, so we need not repeat them here.

First, the defendants appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs on both their common law trademark claim and breach of contract claim. We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. See Robi v. Reed, 173 F.3d 736, 739 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 952 , 120 S.Ct. 375 , 145 L.Ed.2d 293 (1999).

In reviewing the plaintiffs’ common law trademark claim, the district court erred in declining to give preclusive effect to three earlier…