Category: Trademarks

The Freecycle Network, Inc. v. Oey, — F.3d —-, 2007 WL 2781902 (9th Cir. September 26, 2007)

“Freecycling” is a collaborative online effort of people working to share and trade items they no longer want. The Freecycle Network is at the forefront of these efforts, providing a website that facilitates the exchange of information and the subsequent exchange of stuff. Read more about the organization in the group’s Wikipedia entry.

Tim Oey was one of the early forces of the Freecycle Network. At first he encouraged the group to take seriously what rights it may have in the word “freecycle.” Some time later he changed his mind, and began advocating online, through message boards and other fora, that the term should be left to the public domain. The Freecyle Network disagreed with this approach, and ultimately sued Oey for infringement and “defamation of trademark” under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act.

The district court entered a preliminary injunction against Oey. But Oey sought review with the Ninth Circuit, which reversed.

The court provided three reasons why the Freecycling Network’s claim for trademark infringement failed. First, Oey’s conduct did not constitute a “use” of the mark in commerce, as the record in the case did not indicate they were made to promote any competing service or reap any commercial benefit whatsoever. Rather, Oey simply expressed an opinion that the plaintiff lacked trademark rights in the term “freecycle” and encouraged like-minded individuals to continue to use the term in its generic sense and to inform the USPTO of their opinions.

Second, even if Oey’s statements could somehow have been construed to be a “use in commerce,” that use was not likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deceive anyone as to the connection of Oey’s services (or any other) with those of the plaintiff.

Finally, Oey’s statements did not satisfy the requirements for false advertising, misrepresentation, or unfair competition under § 1125(a)(1)(B). There was no evidence that Oey’s statements were made in “commercial advertising or promotion.” And, even if such evidence existed, § 43(a) creates liability only for product disparagement — i.e., misrepresentation of “the nature, characteristics, qualities, or geographic origin” of “another person’s goods, services, or commercial activities.” In this case, the plaintiff did not allege or show that Oey made any statements disparaging its goods or services. Instead, he merely talked about the nature of the mark itself. Indeed, many of his remarks were aimed at ensuring the ongoing success of the plaintiff’s organization and its services.

As for the claim of “trademark disparagement,” the court held that no such cause of action existed under the Lanham Act. It further held that even if trademark disparagement were a viable claim under the law, Oey’s conduct did not satisfy the elements of such a tort that the Freecycling Network asserted. The statements were not “false.” At worst, Oey offered an erroneous legal opinion (by a layperson) that the Freecycle Network lacked trademark rights in the term “Freecycle.” But under the Lanham Act, statements of opinion are not generally actionable.

View the opinion below (or click through if it’s not showing up in the RSS feed):

Finding Internet video player and instant messaging software “extraordinarily different,” court denies preliminary injunction in trademark case.

Instant Media, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., No. 07-2639, 2007 WL 2318948 (N.D.Cal. August 13, 2007)

Plaintiff Instant Media sued Microsoft for trademark infringement, and later moved for a preliminary injunction. Instant Media had a registration for the word mark I’M for use in connection with its downloadable media player called I’M. Microsoft used the mark “i’m” in connection with philanthropic services closely tied to its Windows Live Messenger service.

The court denied the motion for preliminary injunction, finding that Instant Media would not likely succeed on its infringement claim. It applied a subset of the Ninth Circuit’s Sleekcraft factors known as the “Internet trinity,” comparing (1) the similarity of the marks, (2) the relatedness of the products, and (3) the parties’ simultaneous use of the Internet as a marketing channel.

Similarity of the Marks

As for the first factor of the Internet trinity, the court considered the sight, sound and meaning of the two marks. It held that in terms of sight, Microsoft’s mark, consisting of lowercase letters “i’m” appearing in a stylized format with a speech balloon and rendered in pale green and blue, was sufficiently different from Instant Media’s registered “I’M” word mark. The court determined that the sound of the two marks was ambiguous, so Instant Media had not established that the marks sound the same. The court also sided with Microsoft on the third subpart of this analysis — meaning — holding that, given “I’M” could mean Instant Media, instant messenger or the contraction “I am,” Instant Media had not demonstrated that the two marks shared the same meaning.

Relatedness of the Products

The court then turned to the second factor of the Internet trinity, the relatedness of the services. Citing to Jupiter Hosting Inc. v. Jupitermedia Corp., 76 U.S.P.Q.2d 1042 (N.D. Cal. 2004), Instant Media had essentially argued that the two products were necessarily related under this factor, because they were both “free downloadable Internet applications intended for computer users at large.”

The Jupiter Hosting case had relied on GoTo.com, Inc. v. Walt Disney Co., 202 F.3d 1199 (9th Cir. 2000) in which the Ninth Circuit observed that in the Internet context, “even services that are not identical are capable of confusing the public.” The GoTo.com case recognized, however, that “[o]ur ever-growing dependence on the Web may force us eventually to evolve into increasingly sophisticated users of the medium.”

The court declared that such an age of increasing sophistication had arrived:

GoTo.com was decided seven years ago-aeons in Internet terms-and the moment of our evolution into “increasingly sophisticated users of the medium” is upon us. While it may have been plausible in 2000 to suggest that consumers could not easily discriminate between content-delivery programs such as the I’M player or iTunes on the one hand and instant messaging programs such as WLM or AIM on the other, in 2007, where iPods and instant messaging are household concepts, this Court cannot say that, as a matter of law, “it is irrelevant whether the parties’ Internet related services are different.”

Applying this standard, the court held that Microsoft’s instant messaging software and Insight Media’s video player were “extraordinarily different within the context of the Internet.”

Simultaneous Use of the Internet as Marketing Channel

This third factor of the “Internet trinity” was the only one that weighed in Instant Media’s favor. Although Microsoft argued that the marketing channels were different, in that it did not advertise on television (and Instant Media did), the court held there was no real dispute that both parties used the Internet to market their products.

Eric Goldman takes an in-depth look at the newly-filed American Airlines v. Google sponsored listings suit. From the professor’s post:

This complaint pleads the usual claims for this type of action, including direct, contributory and vicarious trademark infringement…; a false advertising claim that the “sponsored link” language communicates a false impression of actual sponsorship; dilution; various “soft” state claims (unfair competition; misappropriation and others); and tortious interference with contract because Google allegedly knew that American’s distributors weren’t supposed to buy American’s trademarks as keywords.

Apple Computer, Inc. v. Podfitness, Inc., No. 06-5805, 2007 WL 1378020 (N.D. Cal. May 10, 2007)

Podfitness.com provides a service whereby users can download workout routines onto their iPods. When Podfitness filed trademark applications for PODFITNESS, PODFITNESS.COM, PODPOCKET, and PODWORKOUT with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Apple filed notices of opposition with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”), seeking to prevent the marks from registering. Apple also filed a federal lawsuit against Podfitness, alleging that the company’s “entire marketing strategy appears to consist of hitching its wagon to Apple’s star.”

Defendant Podfitness moved to stay the proceedings pending the outcome of the oppositions before the TTAB. The court denied the motion to stay.

Podfitness provided two arguments why a stay would be appropriate. First, it argued that since the question of likelihood of confusion would be central to all of Apple’s claims, the court should wait to see how the TTAB rules on that point. Second, Podfitness claimed that Apple has initiated numerous other oppositions before the TTAB seeking to preclude others from registering trademarks containing word combinations which include the term “POD,” and therefore a stay would further the interests of judicial economy because the TTAB’s decision would comprehensively adjudicate Apple’s right to preclude others from using POD-formative marks.

In denying the motion for a stay, the court looked to the doctrine of “primary jurisdiction.” Under this doctrine, a court should stay proceedings which are properly within the jurisdiction of, and are in fact presently under consideration by, an agency with extensive regulatory powers over the subject matter and the parties involved.

Podfitness argued that a stay of the action pending the TTAB’s decision would promote a uniform and efficient adjudication of the parties’ rights, while, at the same time, avoiding the potential for inconsistent judicial determinations concerning Apple’s rights to preclude others from using POD-formative marks. Apple countered that since the TTAB’s decision would only determine the registrability of Podfitness’s marks, the Court would still have to adjudicate its claims for trademark infringement, dilution, false advertising and unfair competition regardless of the substance of the TTAB’s determinations. Accordingly, Apple argued, a stay would only serve to delay the resolution of the issues, perhaps for years.

The court agreed with Apple’s arguments, observing that the TTAB would be incapable of resolving all of the issues between the parties. Granting a stay would only serve to postpone resolution of the issues, forcing the court to eventually adjudicate what would inevitably be stale factual claims. And in the interim, Podfitness would be able to continue its allegedly infringing activity unfettered.

So the benefit of prompt adjudication won out.