Balough
December 14, 2013
Google’s practice of recommending and selling keywords that incorporate trademarks may violate the Lanham Act by causing confusion in the marketplace, a court of appeals has found. The Second Circuit reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a case brought by Rescuecom Corp. The appellate court said the trial court misinterpreted the appellate court’s earlier decision […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Hiding a competitor’s trademark in metatags and printing them with white ink on the website constitutes “willful” trademark infringement under the Lanham Act. McGills Glass Warehouse is an internet-based retailer of stained-glass supplies. It embedded the registered trademarks “Venture Tape” and “Venture Foil” in its website metatags and on the pages by “printing” them in […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
A trademark owner who seeks statutory damages for counterfeit goods cannot also recover attorney’s fees, the Ninth Circuit said. Under the trademark law, a trademark owner who sues in a case involving counterfeit goods may elect to recover either three times the actual damages or statutory damages. The court found that the statute allows for […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
A Florida-based website that targeted the Chicago market and received payment based on the number of clicks on each hyperlink can be sued in Illinois. U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Norgle found Domain Magic, LLC’s website www.chicagoarchitecturefoundation.org misappropriated the website of an Illinois corporation for its own gain. “By purposefully reaching out to the […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Even though a maker of custom vans obtained a trademark registration for “Work-N-Play,” the fact that the company made only one sale that didn’t even use the trademark prevented it from claiming infringement by another van maker using the term “Work and Play.” The Seventh Circuit found that the term “Work-N-Play” was a “descriptive mark,” […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
A treasure trove of rock ‘n roll posters, tapes and memorabilia of the Grateful Dead, the Doors, Santana and Led Zeppelin that are for sale on wolfgangsvault.com has become the focus of a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit. The materials were part of the estate of rock concert promoter Bill Graham who operated the renowned venue […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
The popularity of YouTube has increased visits to utube.com-and according to the owner of the domain name-that is a big problem. Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment has filed a trademark infringement case against the popular video download website. Universal Tube uses the domain name utube.com for its customers who want to buy used tube and […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
Google’s sale of trademarks as keywords is not a “use” under the law to support a claim for infringement, a New York federal district court found. Rescuecom Corp. sued Google under the Lanham Act for trademark infringement, false designation, and dilution of its trademark. The court granted Google’s motion to dismiss. Rescuecom alleged that Google’s […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
Pebble Beach (without a golf course in the United Kingdom) cannot be sued in the United States for trademark infringement over its website by Pebble Beach (the one with the golf course in the US). The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that as long as Pebble Beach in the UK maintains only a passive […]
Balough
December 12, 2013
Let there be no confusion but that the “smoky-bar theory of confusion” is nothing but smoke, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has found. Not only that, but for guitar shapes, you can also forget about initial interest confusion. Gibson Guitar Corp. sued Paul Reed Smith (PRS) Guitars for trademark violation for its design of […]
