Trademarks – Page 2 – internetcases

April 8, 2024 Cybersquatting, Trademarks

Sprint puts an end to entrepreneurs’ efforts to revive NEXTEL brand

abandonment — This house is abandoned but the NEXTEL mark is not.

Plaintiff Sprint (owner of the NEXTEL brand) sued defendant business owners, asserting claims for trademark infringement, cybersquatting and counterfeiting. Beginning in 2016, defendants – apparently believing that Sprint had abandoned the NEXTEL mark – began selling cheap cell phones branded as Nextel devices, and operating websites lauding the brand’s “revival”.

The question of defendants’ liability for infringement of the NEXTEL word mark went to a jury, which found in favor of plaintiff. The jury rejected defendants’ argument that Sprint had abandoned the NEXTEL mark.

Defendants sought review of the jury’s finding of no abandonment with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. On appeal, the court affirmed the lower court’s judgment.

The court examined how abandonment is a defense in trademark infringement cases, requiring discontinuation of a mark’s use with no intent to resume. Trademarks must be used genuinely, and the Lanham Act provides that three years of nonuse is prima facie evidence of abandonment.

The court concluded that the evidence showed Sprint’s continuous use of the NEXTEL word mark. For the three year period that defendants claimed Sprint had not used the mark, Sprint had provided evidence that the mark was used on at least two products. This continuous use also undermined defendants’ arguments against the cybersquatting claim.

Sprint Communications, Inc. v. Calabrese, 2024 WL 1463416 (11th Cir., April 4, 2024)

April 2, 2024 Cybersquatting, Trademarks, Unfair Competition

Redirecting URL was unlawful but did not cause damages

url redirect trademark

In the months leading up to the FDA shutting down plaintiff’s business, one of the co-owners of the business left and set up a competing enterprise. For a few weeks, the former co-owner set plaintiff’s domain name to forward to the new company’s website.

Plaintiff sued and the court held that redirecting the URL was a violation of the Lanham Act (the federal law relating to trademarks and unfair competition). But plaintiff was not entitled to any damages because it failed to show that the redirection caused any lost sales. During that time, 133 users who tried to access plaintiff’s website were redirected to the new company’s website, and of those 133 visitors, only two submitted inquiries and neither customer who submitted an inquiry placed an order.

ABH Nature’s Products, Inc. v. Supplement Manufacturing Partner, Inc., 2024 WL 13452228 (E.D.N.Y., March 29, 2024)

Can the owner of a company be personally liable for what the company does?

personally liable

One of the major benefits of forming a corporation or limited liability company is the shield from personal liability the business entity provides to its owners. But that shield does not protect against all of the company’s officers’ conduct.

In a recent trademark infringement case in federal court in California, a court evaluated whether a company’s officer could face liability for trademark infringement and cybersquatting. Plaintiff sued the company and the owner individually, asserting that that the owner should be personally liable because he controlled and was involved in all significant corporate decisions regarding the alleged infringement.

Citing to Facebook, Inc. v. Power Ventures, Inc., 844 F.3d 1058 (9th Cir. 2016), the court observed that a corporate officer can be personally liable when he or she is the “guiding spirit” behind the wrongful conduct, or the “central figure” in the challenged corporate activity.

In this case, the court declined to dismiss the individual defendant from the lawsuit. With respect to the alleged trademark infringement and cybersquatting, the court focused on the fact that the individual defendant:

was the founder and central figure of the company,
personally participated in all major business strategy, branding and marketing decisions and actions,
ran the company from his home,
was the only officer of the company and was simultaneously the CEO, CFO and Secretary,
promoted the company’s brand from his personal social media account, and
directly negotiated with the plaintiff’s founder to see whether the parties could “find a more peaceful resolution.”

Simply stated, the individual defendant was not merely a board member that “final say,” but was substantially involved in every aspect of the conduct of the business giving rise to the alleged intellectual property infringement.

Playground AI LLC v. Mighty Computing, Inc. et al., 2024 WL 1123214 (N.D. Cal., March 14, 2024)

See also:

March 18, 2024 Blockchain, Trademarks

MetaBirkins defendant denied of opportunity to exhibit NFT artwork in Swedish museum

metabirkins museum
In February 2023, Sonny Estival, known by his pseudonym “Mason Rothschild,” was found liable by a jury on a number of claims, including intentional trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and cybersquatting against luxury brand Hermès. The court ordered Estival to pay $133,000 in damages to Hermès and issued a comprehensive permanent injunction against him and his associates. This injunction specifically prohibited the production, distribution, and promotion of “MetaBirkins” non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and related merchandise, aiming to prevent any association or confusion with Hermès’s “Birkin” trademark.

In January 2024, Estival sought clarification from the court regarding the scope of the permanent injunction, particularly whether it would prevent him from allowing a Swedish museum to exhibit his MetaBirkins artworks as part of an exhibition on Andy Warhol and Business Art. Despite his claims that the museum’s display would not imply any association with Hermès and would even include mention of the lawsuit and its outcome, Hermès opposed this motion. The court held an evidentiary hearing, and after considering submissions from both parties and testimony from museum representatives, denied Estival’s motion. The court could not conclude that the proposed exhibition would comply with the injunction’s terms, given the lack of detailed information about the nature of the permission Estival would be granting to the museum, especially concerning the promotion of the exhibit and potential merchandising.

The court’s decision was heavily influenced by the context of Estival’s previous actions and the jury’s findings, which characterized him as intentionally misleading the public to associate his NFTs with Hermès’s Birkin brand. Despite the museum’s assurance that the exhibit would not suggest any affiliation with Hermès, the court remained unconvinced, especially given discrepancies in the museum representatives’ testimonies regarding how the lawsuit and Estival’s infringement would be presented to the public.

Hermès Int’l v. Rothschild, 2024 WL 1089427 (S.D.N.Y. March 13, 2024)

See also:

February 20, 2024 Trademarks

Peloton did not infringe trademark rights of fitness app maker

Plaintiff used the mark BIKE+ in connection with a fitness tracking app and obtained a federal registration for the mark. It sued defendant Peloton for trademark infringement over Peloton’s adoption and use of the mark PELOTON BIKE+. Defendant moved for summary judgment arguing, among other things, that there was no likelihood of confusion. The court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment.

Sitting in the Ninth Circuit, the court embarked on an analysis under AMF, Inc. v. Sleekcraft Boats, 599 F.2d 341 (9th Cir. 1979) to assess the likelihood of consumer confusion. It considered several factors, including the strength of the mark, the similarity of the products, marketing channels used, and the intent behind the choice of mark, among others. The court determined that plaintiff’s BIKE+ mark, being descriptive of the app’s functionality to enhance biking experiences, did not possess the inherent distinctiveness that warrants a broad scope of protection. This was compounded by the existence of similar marks in the app marketplace, further reducing the strength of plaintiff’s mark.

The court then looked to the relatedness of the goods offered by both parties, the similarity of the marks in appearance, sound, and meaning, and the absence of evidence of actual consumer confusion. Despite the complementary nature of the defendant’s physical product and the plaintiff’s app, and some similarities in the marks, the lack of actual confusion evidence, along with divergent marketing channels and the sophistication of the consumers, weighed against the likelihood of confusion. The defendant’s intent in selecting its mark did not suggest a deliberate attempt to create confusion, further diminishing the plaintiff’s stance.

Ultimately, the court concluded that the descriptive nature of the plaintiff’s mark, the lack of significant commercial strength, and the minimal impact of relatively recent development activity made confusion unlikely. Defendant’s commercial prominence and extensive marketing efforts did not overshadow the plaintiff’s app to a degree that would cause confusion among consumers. Given all the circumstances and the specific context of each factor considered, the court found confusion to be possible but not probable, leading to the grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant.

World Champ Tech LLC v. Peloton Interactive, Inc., 2024 WL 665181 (N.D. California, February 16, 2024)

Who owns the trademark rights in the name of a user-created community?

trademarks social platforms

In the realm of online communities, where does the ownership of trademark rights lie – with the platform hosting the community or the individual user who creates and develops it?

The intriguing case involving Reddit and the founder of the well-known r/WallStreetBets subreddit presents a scenario that addresses this question concerning online communities and intellectual property rights. The case deals with the ownership and alleged infringement of two trademarks: WALLSTREETBETS and WSB.

Reddit and WallStreetBets

Reddit is a widely-used social media platform that enables users to create, manage, and participate in communities known as subreddits, centered around various interests. Plaintiff Rogozinski launched r/WallStreetBets in January 2012 to establish a forum for discussions and information exchange about the financial industry. While preparing for the launch, plaintiff invested considerable time and effort in developing the subreddit’s unique identity. This included creating the WALLSTREETBETS logo, designing the site using CSS to modify Reddit’s template. Later he set up related online channels, including an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) chatroom, a Discord channel, and a Twitter account under the WALLSTREETBETS name. By 2020, the r/WallStreetBets subreddit had amassed over a million followers.

Reddit Got Mad

The conflict took shape when plaintiff filed an application to register the WALLSTREETBETS trademark with the USPTO in March 2020. Reddit subsequently suspended plaintiff’s account for a week, citing his attempt to monetize the community, and barred him from moderating on the platform. In January 2022, plaintiff filed to register the mark WSB, and the USPTO granted this registration in June 2022.

Then There Was Litigation

Plaintiff sought a declaratory judgment – which in this case was a request for the court to acknowledge his ownership of the WALLSTREETBETS and WSB trademarks. He also made a claim against Reddit for infringing these trademarks, together with various other claims arising under state law. On the infringement issue, his theory was that he did not give Reddit permission to use the WALLSTREETBETS trademark following his ban as a moderator of the r/WallStreetBets subreddit he created.

The court dismissed Plaintiff’s first complaint, which he filed in February 2023. That dismissal, however, came with the opportunity for plaintiff to amend his complaint to address these issues. Despite his efforts to fix the identified shortcomings in his amended complaint, Reddit argued that he had still failed to meet the necessary legal standards. The court agreed and dismissed the case again.

Court Says the Rights are Reddit’s

The Court’s placed significant emphasis on the principle of “first use in commerce,” a critical element in establishing trademark ownership. In his amended complaint, plaintiff attempted to demonstrate his early and significant involvement in the development and use of the trademarks in question. He detailed his efforts in creating the logo, designing the subreddit, and establishing associated online channels. However, the court remained unconvinced by these assertions, noting that plaintiff’s actions did not meet the threshold of “use in commerce” as required by trademark law. The Court also scrutinized the timing and nature of plaintiff’s activities in relation to the establishment and popularity of the subreddit, ultimately finding that these actions did not suffice to establish his ownership of the trademarks.

And the case addresses the interesting issue of who owns trademark rights in a user-generated community – the platform or the moderator/creator? Reddit asserted that it owned the trademark rights in the community. Specifically, citing a case from the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal board, In re Florists’ Transworld Delivery Inc., 2016 WL 3998062 (T.T.A.B. May 11, 2016), Reddit had argued that account holders like plaintiff “generally will not be able to rely on use of [their] social media account to support an application for registration of a mark for such service.” Reddit argued that “[j]ust as the applicant in In re Florists’ Transworld could not claim rights in connection with ‘creating an online community’ based on use of Twitter, Plaintiff cannot rely on his use of Reddit’s platform to support alleged service mark rights in connection with a ‘web based community'”.

Regarding the state law claims, the court looked to 47 U.S.C. 230, which provides immunity to providers of interactive computer services from liability for content posted by others. The court found that these claims, as presented, did not get around Reddit’s Section 230 immunity.

Rogozinski v. Reddit, Inc., 2024 WL 150727 (N.D. California January 12, 2024)

Read Franklin’s post at Creator Economy Law.

See also:

January 10, 2024 Cybersquatting, Trademarks

No ACPA injunction because mark was not distinctive when domain name first registered

ACPA

This case had a bit of a weird result – even though the brand owner had a mark that was 20 years old, and the alleged cybersquatter in the meantime acquired a domain name on the open market identical to that mark, because the domain name was first registered (by an unrelated party) before the brand owner’s trademark rights arose, there was no relief under federal trademark law. One may question whether such a result creates a loophole for bad faith actors.

History of registration and rights

Someone – no one seems to know who – first registered the disputed domain name <trx.com> back in 1999. In 2003, plaintiff’s successor in interest (via bankruptcy) began using the trademark TRX, thereby acquiring rights in the mark. Defendant bought the domain name in 2022.

Plaintiff sued defendant under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), a part of U.S. trademark law that deals with bad faith domain name registration. Plaintiff sought a preliminary injunction ordering the transfer of the disputed domain name pending resolution of the lawsuit. The court denied the motion because it found that plaintiff had not established that plaintiff would likely succeed on the merits of the cybersquatting claim.

Outcome up for critique

The legal holding is potentially problematic, however, and represents a point on which different federal courts sitting in different parts of the country handle cybersquatting claims differently under the ACPA.

In this case, the court held that plaintiff’s cybersquatting claim depended on when the disputed domain name was first registered. Citing to a 2023 case from the same district, Blair v. Automobili Lamborghini SpA, which in turn relied on the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in GoPets Ltd. v. Hise, 657 F.3d 1024 (9th Cir. 2011), the court explained that liability for cybersquatting is possible “only when a person other than the trademark owner registers a domain name that is confusingly similar to a trademark that is distinctive at the time of the domain name’s registration.” It went on to note that “[i]n other words, if a domain name is registered before a particular trademark exists, the trademark owner cannot assert a viable cybersquatting claim against the domain name owner.”

So under this logic, because the domain name was registered prior to 2003 (when the rights in the TRX mark came into existence), there is no way plaintiff’s TRX mark could have been distinctive at the time of the domain name’s registration. The court came to this conclusion even though the record demonstrated that some unknown person, other than defendant, first registered the disputed domain name, and that defendant first acquired the domain name on the market many years after the TRX mark had become distinctive.

It is interesting to note that this outcome conflicts with decisions in other circuits that hold “re-registration” by a new owner counts as the time for evaluating whether a mark with which a domain name may be confusingly similar, is distinctive. See, e.g., Instructure, Inc. v. Canvas Technologies, Inc., 2022 WL 43829 (D. Utah, January 5, 2022). One could argue it is bad policy for the ACPA system to essentially absolve a bad faith actor who acquires a domain name that contains a protectible mark but was first registered by someone else not acting in bad faith, prior to the time the mark became strong.

JFXD TRX ACQ LLC, v. trx.com, 2024 WL 98424 (D. Ariz., January 9, 2023)

See also:

January 4, 2024 Copyright, DMCA, Trademarks, Unfair Competition

cPanel gets injunction to shut down sophisticated counterfeiting enterprise

The purveyor of cPanel – the well-known hosting automation software – has successfully obtained an injunction against an overseas enterprise accused of engaging in an elaborate scheme to sell unauthorized access to the cPanel software. A federal court in Oregon has issued a wide-ranging injunction against the defendants’ unauthorized activities.

The sophistication of defendants’ actions

Plaintiff’s evidence showed that defendants – under the brand “Licenseman” – changed the cPanel software in several ways. Defendants allegedly made it so that any requests for licensing or technical help from cPanel went to Licenseman’s servers instead. The modified software hid messages about trial licenses expiring and would delete itself if cPanel’s tech team tried to access a server with this altered software. The changes involved “wrapped binaries” in the software, which tricked the system into using licenses meant for other cPanel systems. This meant many people could use the same cPanel license illegally.

cPanel’s legal claims

cPanel sued for:

copyright infringement;
the trafficking of circumvention devices in violation of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2);
trademark infringement and unfair competition under 15 U.S.C. § 1114, 1125(a);
trademark counterfeiting under 15 U.S.C. § 1114; and
cybersquatting under ACPA, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d).

cPanel asked the court to enter a preliminary injunction to stop the unlawful activity. The court granted the motion. In reaching its decision, it found that plaintiff was likely to succeed on all five of its claims, in light of the overwhelming evidence indicating that defendants were behind the actions of the Licenseman entity.

The court’s decision

On the copyright infringement claim, the court found that plaintiffs had shown ownership of the allegedly infringed material by presenting evidence of its registered copyright claims. Plaintiffs presented evidence that defendants had infringed on plaintiff’s exclusive right to prepare derivative works of the software by altering cPanel software to permit access via illicit licenses.

As for the DMCA circumvention claim, the court found that defendants sold re-engineered, illicit cPanel licenses that, as advertised, manipulated the binary of the cPanel software so that people could use the cPanel software without purchasing a subscription from plaintiff. And defendants trafficked—that is, sold—such licenses via their websites. Thus, every element of DMCA trafficking liability had been met.

Concerning trademark infringement and unfair competition, the court likewise found that plaintiff had established a likelihood of success on the merits of its claims. Plaintiff submitted evidence that it owns a registration for the CPANEL mark, which served as prima facie evidence of exclusive rights to use the mark. And defendant’s actions were “highly” likely to confuse customers. The fact that illicit license users had sought plaintiff’s customer service suggested that users had actually been confused and not exercised a great deal of care in pursuing cPanel licenses.

Finding that plaintiff had shown likelihood of success on its counterfeiting claim, the court noted that plaintiff’s CPANEL mark identifies computer software facilitating the management and configuration of internet web servers, and defendants were using that exact mark to sell illicit licenses to plaintiff’s software.

Finally, on the cybersquatting claim, the court found plaintiffs to be likely to succeed on the merits where the disputed domain names incorporated the CPANEL mark and were used to sell infringing items “which itself prove[d] bad faith.”

Because plaintiff also showed irreparable harm from the alleged activity, that defendants’ loss of business if enjoined was not an unfair tipping of the equities, and that the public interest would benefit from the prohibition of the alleged conduct, the court granted the injunction.

cPanel, LLC v. Asli, 2024 WL 35674 (D.Or. January 3, 2024)

NB: Great work on the case by Venkat and team.

Online platforms will have to answer for sales of alleged counterfeit products

A federal court in New York has denied the motion to dismiss filed by Chinese online platforms Alibaba and AliExpress in a lawsuit brought by a toymaker alleging that these companies’ merchant customers were engaged in contributory trademark and copyright infringement through the online sale of counterfeit products.

Background of the Case

Plaintiff toymaker accused the Alibaba defendants of facilitating the sale of counterfeit products on their platforms. The lawsuit stemmed from the activities of around 90 e-commerce merchants who were reportedly using the platforms to sell to sell fake goods.

The Court’s Rationale

The court’s decision to deny the motion to dismiss turned on several allegations that suggest the Alibaba defendants played a more complicit role than that of a passive service provider. These allegations included:

Specific Awareness of Infringement: The Alibaba defendants were allegedly well-informed about the infringing activities of several merchants, including some named in the lawsuit. The Alibaba defendants should have known of these instances from orders in six separate lawsuits against sellers on the platforms.
Continued Proliferation of Infringing Listings: Despite this awareness, the platforms reportedly allowed the continued presence and proliferation of infringing listings. This included listings from merchants already flagged under Alibaba’s “three-strike policy” for repeat offenders.
Promotion of Infringing Listings: Plaintiff alleged the Alibaba defendants actively promoted infringing listings. The Alibaba defendants reportedly granted “Gold Supplier” and “Verified” statuses to infringing merchants, sold related keywords, and even promoted these listings through Google and promotional emails.
Financial Gains from Infringements: Crucially, plaintiff argued that the Alibaba defendants financially benefited from these activities by attracting more customers, encouraging merchants to purchase additional services, and earning commissions on transactions involving counterfeit goods.

DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions Not Applicable

The court rejected the Alibaba defendants’ argument that safe harbor provisions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) applied at this stage of the litigation. The DMCA safe harbor is typically an affirmative defense to liability, and for it to apply at the motion to dismiss stage, such defense must be evident on the face of the complaint. The court found that in this case, it was not.

Implications of the Ruling

This decision is relevant to purveyors of online products who face the persistent challenges of online enforcement of intellectual property rights. Remedies against overseas companies in situations such as this are often elusive. The case provides a roadmap of sorts concerning the types of facts that must be asserted to support a claim against an online provider in the position of the Alibaba defendants.

Kelly Toys Holdings, LLC v. 19885566 Store et al., 2023 WL 8936307 (S.D.N.Y. December 27, 2023)

July 24, 2023 Trademarks

When X makes it an ex-brand: Can a company retain rights in an old trademark after rebranding?

This past weekend Elon Musk announced plans to rebrand Twitter as X. This strategic shift from one of the most recognized names and logos in the social media realm is stirring discussion throughout the industry. This notable transformation raises a broader question: Can a company still have rights in its trademarks after rebranding? What might come of the famous TWITTER mark and the friendly blue bird logo?

Continued Use is Key

In the United States, trademark rights primarily arise from the actual use of the mark in commerce (and not just from registration of the mark). The Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate commerce among the states. Exercising this constitutional authority, Congress enacted the Lanham Act, which serves as the foundation for modern trademark law in the United States. By linking the Lanham Act’s protections to the “use in commerce” of a trademark, the legislation reinforces the principle that active commercial use, rather than mere registration, is a key determinant of rights in that trademark. So, as long as a company has genuinely used its trademark in commerce (assuming no other company has rights that arose prior in time), the company retains rights to that mark.

Though a company may transition to a new brand identity, it can maintain rights to its former trademark by continuing its use in some form or another. This might involve selling a limited line of products under the old brand, using the old brand in specific regions, or licensing the old trademark to other entities. Such actions show the company’s intent to maintain its claim and rights to the mark—such rights being tied strongly to the actual use of the mark in commerce. No doubt continued use of the old marks after a rebrand can be problematic, as it may paint an unclear picture as to how the company is developing its identity. For example, as of the time of this blog post, X has placed the new X logo, but still has the words “Search Twitter” in the search bar. And there is also the open question of whether we will in the future call content posted to the platform “tweets”.

Avoiding Abandonment

If a company does not actively use its trademark and demonstrates no intention to use it in the future, it runs the risk of abandonment. Once a trademark is deemed abandoned, the original owner loses exclusive rights to it. This is obviously problematic for a brand owner, because a third party could then enter the scene, adopt use of the abandoned mark, and thereby pick up on the goodwill the former brand owner developed over the years.

What Will Twitter Do?

It is difficult to imagine that X will allow the TWITTER mark to fall into the history books of abandoned marks. The mark has immense value through its long use and recognition—indeed the platform has been the prime mover in its space since its founding in 2006. Even if the company commits to the X rebranding, we probably have not seen the end of TWITTER and the blue bird as trademarks. There will likely be some use, even if different than what we have seen over the past 17 years, to keep certain trademark rights alive.

From the archives:

https://kxd.srb.temporary.site/website_f704b91a/2008/11/26/is-twitter-is-a-big-fat-copyright-infringing-turkey/