Importer Says Its Weekly Planners Are 'Calendars,' Not 'Planners

DOJ’s admission that an importer’s monthly calendars and desk calendars were classifiable as “calendars” meant that the company’s weekly calendars, which had the same features, also should be classified as such, an organizational tools importer said (Blue Sky The Color of Imagination, LLC v. United States, CIT # 21-00624).

Importer Blue Sky the Color of Imagination brought the U.S. to court in August 2022 after CBP classified all 10 of its products in a 2020 entry, including imported desk pads, monthly planners and weekly/monthly planners, as ”notebooks” rather than as duty-free “calendars.” It sought summary judgment Aug. 25 (see 2308240037).

The U.S. reversed course for six products. However, it opposed Blue Sky’s motion for summary judgment in the case of four weekly/monthly planners, saying that, although they contained some calendar pages, they were notebooks. The "vast majority" of the pages in each planner aren't calendar pages, but rather "weekly view" pages with separate lined sections for each day of the week, as well as separate sections for notes and "to do" lists, DOJ said.

Blue Sky argued the weekly view pages are calendar pages. They “systematically” display the days of the week, thus meeting both Blue Sky’s definition of a calendar as a “dated book with pages for days, weeks, months and year in which you notate future appointments” and DOJ’s as a “system or chart representing days, weeks or months of the year,” its said.

“Faced with this realization, the Government devotes most of its brief to painstakingly discussing peripheral features of the weekly/monthly calendars, such as space to take notes, lined sections, and inconsequential reference pages, which it apparently argues transform the dated calendar year 2021 weekly/monthly planners from calendars into something more akin to an undated, generic notebook,” Blue Sky said.

In admitting that its monthly planners are calendars, the U.S. should be stopped from arguing that its weekly/monthly planners aren't -- they share the same features, including the same lined sections and note spaces, it said.