Arizona State Trailer Sales, Inc. d/b/a Little Dealer Little Prices RV v. World Wide RV, No. FA1003001315658 (Nat’l Arb. Forum, May 7, 2010) Startups in the process of selecting a company or product name are often frustrated to see that someone else, years ago, registered the .com version of their newly thought-of name. Similarly, companies [...]
Archive for the ‘Trademarks’ Category
UDRP loser did not commit fraud on USPTO by saying it was exclusive user of mark
April 15th, 2010
1 Comment
Salu, Inc. v. Original Skin Store, Slip Copy, 2010 WL 1444617 (E.D.Cal. April 12, 2010) This is kind of a wonky trademark/domain name case. So if that’s not in your wheelhouse, don’t strain yourself. Plaintiff sued defendant for infringement of plaintiff’s registered trademark. Defendant moved for summary judgment, claiming that the asserted trademark registration was [...]
File extensions cannot be trademarks
January 28th, 2010
3 Comments
Autodesk, Inc. v. Dassault Systemes Solidworks Corp., 2009 WL 5218009 (N.D. Cal. December 31, 2009) One of the issues in the case of Autodesk, Inc. v. Dassault Systemes Solidworks was whether Autodesk could claim trademark rights and the letters “DWG”. The .dwg (“drawing”) file extension is the native file format for Autodesk’s flagship product AutoCAD. [...]
Court denies motion to dismiss AdWords trademark infringement case
December 9th, 2009
4 Comments
FragranceNet.com, Inc. v. Les Parfums, Inc., — F.Supp.2d —, 2009 WL 4609268 (E.D.N.Y. December 8, 2009) FragranceNet.com sells perfume online. It sued several of its competitors, claiming trademark infringement and other causes of action like unfair competition and unjust enrichment, over the defendants’ alleged purchase of variations of the term “fragrancenet” to trigger sponsored links [...]
Cybersquatter hit with maximum penalty
March 10th, 2009
8 Comments
Citigroup, Inc. v. Shui, 2009 WL 483145 (E.D. Va. Feb. 24, 2009) Court enjoins use of citybank.org, orders defendant to pay $100,000 in statutory damages and to pay Citibank’s attorneys’ fees. Defendant Shui registered the domain name citybank.org and established a site there promoting financial services, sometimes using the mark CITIBANK. The real Citibank, armed [...]
Verizon obtains damages, injunction against regsitrar under ACPA
January 8th, 2009
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[This is a guest post by contributor Brian Beckham] Plaintiff Verizon California, Inc. (Verizon) recently obtained a default judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, in its favor against Defendant, the registrar OnlineNIC, Inc. (press release). Despite repeated attempts, Verizon was not able to serve notice on [...]
Disclaimer in trademark registration sinks UDRP action
December 18th, 2008
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Ideation Unlimited, Inc. v. Dan Myers, Case No. D2008-1441 (WIPO November 12, 2008). A trademark owner who notices that someone else has registered a domain name incorporating the owner’s mark can file an arbitration action under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP for short). This often serves as a quicker and less expensive [...]
Results of Internet searches helpful in earthworm trademark case
November 17th, 2008
1 Comment
Cascade Mfg. Sales, Inc. v. Providnet Co. Trust, 2008 WL 4889716 (W.D. Wash. November 12, 2008) Cascade Manufacturing makes and sells composting bins in which earthworms “enhance and accelerate the composting process.” Cascade owns a federal trademark registration for WORM FACTORY. It sued its competitor Providnet Co. for trademark infringement over Providnet’s use of the [...]
Court allows U.S. lawsuit over video posted on Mexican website
October 25th, 2008
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Rapper 50 Cent’s Lanham Act claim against Cancun night club survives motion to dismiss Jackson v. Grupo Industrial Hotelero, S.A., No. 07-22046, 2008 WL 4648999 (S.D. Fla. October 20, 2008) Defendant owns Coco Bongo, a popular Cancun nightclub. Coco Bongo allegedly used rapper 50 Cent‘s likeness as well as one of his registered trademarks in [...]
