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.
Labels: , , , , Posted by
The general information and thoughts posted to this blog are provided only as an informational service to the web community and do not constitute solicitation or provision of legal advice. Nothing on this blog is intended to create an attorney-client relationship and nothing posted constitutes legal advice. You should understand that the posts by the author, who is an attorney at U.S. law firm Allegaert, Berger & Vogel, may or may not reflect the views of that firm and that the author of this blog is only authorized to practice law in the jurisdictions in which he is properly licensed to do so. For additional information, click here.