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(AP) -- A federal judge has refused a request from the maker of Bounty paper towels to order rival Brawny to stop using a so-called "bowtie" embossing pattern.

Cincinnati-based consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co. filed a federal lawsuit in May saying Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp. copied the pattern from ExtraSoft Bounty.  U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost on Monday said he would not stop Georgia-Pacific from using the design pending the outcome of the lawsuit.  The judge says the embossing is not immediately recognizable to consumers as being linked to Bounty and that there is only a "mere possibility of confusion" from similarities between the two brands' patterns.

Frost also says there is no evidence that Georgia-Pacific intended to copy the pattern.

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