Eighth Circuit upholds preliminary injunction against alleged cybersquatter

The law firm of Faegre & Benson (“Faegre”) brought suit against defendant Purdy and related defendants for trademark infringement, cybersquatting and various state law claims resulting from the defendants’ registration of several domain names incorporating variations of Faegre’s firm name. The district court entered a preliminary injunction against the defendants on January 5, 2004.

The district court had enjoined the defendants from: (1) using domain names identical to or confusingly similar to Faegre’s marks unless the protest or critical commentary nature of the attached website was apparent from the domain name itself, (2) from using marks identical to or confusingly similar to Faegre’s marks, (3) from displaying any website whose appearance is identical or confusingly similar to the trade dress of Faegre’s website; and (4) from illegally appropriating Faegre names.

On appeal, the defendants argued that (1) the injunction was overbroad, (2) the websites were noncommercial and used to make critical comments about Faegre, (3) use of the domain names was not likely to cause confusion as to the sponsor of the sites, and (4) that the use of the domain names was protected by the First Amendment.

The court rejected each of these arguments by the defendants, and affirmed the district court’s entry of a temporary injunction. It held that defendants had not shown the district court abused its discretion in issuing the preliminary injunction.

Faegre & Benson, LLP v. Purdy, 2005 WL 742732 (8th Cir., April 4, 2005).

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