Court allows U.S. lawsuit over video posted on Mexican website

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 some Spring Break 2007 video advertisements posted to the web. 50 Cent sued under the Lanham Act in federal court here in the United States alleging trademark infringement as false designation of origin.

Coco Bongo moved to dismiss, arguing a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. It contended that the alleged acts occurred outside of the United States, thus an extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act would violate Supreme Court and Eleventh Circuit authority. The court denied the motion.

The fact that the offending advertisements were on the web was key to the court’s finding that the court had subject matter jurisdiction. 50 Cent was seeking enforcement of his United States trademark rights in the United States. Although the Coco Bongo website was located in Mexico, and even though the website and its advertisements might be viewable by numerous other countries, it was the availability of the allegedly infringing advertisement within the United States that gave rise to an alleged violation of the Lanham Act.

See also Rogers v. Wright for analysis of the extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act.

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October 25, 2008 | Filed Under Trademarks | Leave a Comment 

Alienware goes after “free” computer offer

Alienware Corporation v. Online Gift Rewards, No. 08-1560, S.D.N.Y. (Filed February 14, 2008).

High-performance computer manufacturer Alienware has filed suit against an online marketer alleging trademark infringement, dilution, and other theories of unfair competition. Alienware claims that the defendant has “disseminated mass unsolicited electronic solicitations” and posted Web pages offering “free” Alienware laptops, when in reality, one has to perform some “onerous” tasks to get them.

According to Alienware, after accepting the offer, users must purchase a specified amount of goods from various other sites. And this obligation is not clearly communicated, but is “presented to the consumer, if at all, only after he or she expends significant time and effort in responding to inquiries and navigating the multiple prompts.”

One may be tempted to speculate that the defendant in this case could raise some kind of defense based on fair use of the trademark. (How could you let people know what you’re offering unless you tell them; and giving away actual Alienware computers also seems like it could be protected under the first sale doctrine.)

And Alienware may have anticipated this defense, by alleging that it’s only “Alienware” serving as the source identifier for the offer, and “[t]here is no other recognizable or identifiable indication of source.” The defendant is an entity called “Online Gift Rewards.” Alienware claims that the designation is “likely to be perceived as a generic description of the offering rather than a source indicator.”

[Download the complaint]

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February 20, 2008 | Filed Under Trademarks | Leave a Comment 

Finding ATLAS COPCO and ATLAS CASPIAN confusingly similar, court awards in rem ACPA relief to unopposed plaintiff

Atlas Copco AB v. Atlascopcoiran.com, No. 07-1208, 2008 WL 149128 (E.D. Va. January 8, 2008)

Unable to hail the overseas registrants of domain names, including atlascaspian.com and atlascopcoiran.com into a U.S. court, plaintiff Atlas Copco AB sought in rem relief against the domain names under 15 U.S.C. §1125(d)(2)(a). After the defendants failed to answer the complaint, Atlas Copco moved for summary judgment, relying on the allegations of its verified complaint.

The court granted the motion and ordered the domain names transferred.

In finding that the defendants had engaged in cyberpiracy, the court looked at the “dominant or salient portions of the marks” at issue – the plaintiff’s mark and the marks comprising the offending domain names.

For you trademark experts out there, query whether you might characterize the following analysis as a bit of a stretch:

The dominant portion of each of the Defendant Domain Names is “ATLAS COPCO” or “ATLAS.” These “dominant” terms are paired with the generic terms “CASPIAN” and “IRAN,” which are generic geographic terms that do not distinguish the Defendant Domain Names from the ATLAS COPCO trademark. An internet user might reasonably assume that the geographic term “CASPIAN” and “IRAN” were added to the ATLAS COPCO trademark by the Plaintiffs to identify its geographic location.

It looks like another motivation for the court’s finding was some of the subterfuge on the sites at the offending domain names. Turns out some of them pointed to “copycat” websites bearing “Atlas Caspian” logos confusingly similar to the plaintiff’s trademark, and linked to phishing sites bearing the actual Atlas Copco mark.

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January 30, 2008 | Filed Under Cybersquatting, Trademarks | 1 Comment