Court enters injunction against use of Twitter accounts in trademark case

Black Sheep Television, Ltd. v. Town of Islip, 2010 WL 4961669 (E.D.N.Y., December 6, 2010)

The Long Island Macarthur Airport is in a dispute with a company over that company’s alleged cybersquatting and the creation of websites that apparently a number of people have confused with the airport’s official marketing efforts. That company has also registered some Twitter accounts with usernames that incorporate the airport’s trademarks.

The airport has alleged trademark infringement and other similar claims against the company, and moved for a preliminary injunction. The court granted the motion, ordering (among other things) the Twitter accounts to remain in the ownership, custody, and control of the airport throughout the pendency of the litigation.

[Download the opinion]

1 Comment

  1. Doug Lytle
    February 23, 2011

    See also, New York City Triathlon, LLC v. NYC Triathlon Club, Inc., 704 F.Supp.2d 305 (2010). Excerpt:

    Second, Defendant is also ordered to immediately refrain from using infringing marks on its site and all other webpages within its control, such as, but not limited to, its Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin pages…
    Defendant's actions with respect to its Twitter account violate the express terms of this Court's order, which enjoined Defendant from using any and all of Plaintiff's marks. The fact that Defendant is not accepting additional “followers” on its “nyctriclub” Twitter account and has “protected” its “tweets” (rendered them private) (id.), does not alter the fact that defendant's “nyctriclub”account is publicly viewable and patently in violation of the terms of the injunction. Defendant is ordered to remove any reference to “nyctriclub” or any of Plaintiff's Marks or anything similar from all websites, social networking sites and other forms of electronic media.

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