A blog about patent, copyright and trademark law in the U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of New York

Court Finds Registration of Domain Name Not Use in Commerce of a Trademark

In an April 12, 2016 ruling, Judge John G. Koetl ruled that a party’s registration of a domain name was not considered the use of a trademark in commerce, and so the party that actually first used the mark in commerce in connection with the offering and sale of goods was the legal owner of the mark. Judge Koetl wrote:
Without an offering of goods or services identified with the mark, a website that displays the . . . mark and contains simply a welcome page is insufficient to establish that the mark was used to identify goods to the public.
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