Sixth Circuit finds no trademark violation in post-domain paths
In the case of Interactive Products Corp. v. a2z Mobile Office Solutions, Inc. [PDF], No. 01-3590, the Sixth Circuit has ruled that the use of a registered trademark in the post-domain path of a URL does not violate trademark law because it is unlikely to create customer confusion regarding the origins of the goods offered at the website. There is currently a split of authority among courts concerning trademark infringement claims based on post-domain path uses of trademarks such as www.abscd.com/microsoft/.
The post-domain path of a URL is everything after the domain name, e.g. anything after "nytimes.com" or "lawmeme.org."
Read the opinion here. (Link via How Appealing.) Or, if you're short on time, read a summary of the case.
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