Plaintiff brought this cybersquatting, trademark infringement and defamation action after defendant posted web sites criticizing the plaintiff and her business practices. Embedded in the web sites were metatags incorporating the plaintiff's trademark name. The court held that while the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act applies to marks included in domain names, it does not apply to marks in metatags. In addition, where the metatags are protected under fair use and unlikely to cause confusion between the web site and the owner of the mark, a finding of infringement is unlikely under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act. The court noted defendant's use of the mark met the Car-Freshner Corp v. S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. (70 F.3d 267 (2d Cir. 1995)) two-part fair use test because the term was used in a descriptive sense and in good faith.
Opinion at http://august1.com/courses/cyber/cases/Bihari.htm
Keywords: cybersquatting, trademark, defamation, metatags, domain names
| 