Trademarks

In the first major blow to companies seeking to protect their trademarks on the Internet, a federal appeals court held Monday that corporations cannot always prevent others from registering domain names that coincide with their brand names. The decision clarifies who is entitled to a domain name that bears a company's trademark. Legal experts said it could shift the balance of power on the Internet away from big companies and toward individuals.

A federal judge thwarted America Online Inc.'s attempt to bar AT&T Corp. from using the terms "You have mail," "Buddy List" and "IM" on its WorldNet online service. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton in Alexandria, Va., granted AT&T's motion for summary judgment, rejecting AOL's claims that the words and phrases are trademarked. Hilton's decision, which invalidated AOL's "Buddy List" trademark, also dismissed the case.

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers held off on adopting a controversial plan for resolving trademark disputes on the Internet during its meeting last week in Berlin. Some Net activists say the plan proposed by the World Intellectual Property Organization would give too much power to big companies at the expense of individual Internet users.

Internet provider America Online settled a trademark dispute with Playboy Enterprises Inc. after an appeals court backed Playboy in litigation dating back five years. Terms were not disclosed. Playboy sued Excite Inc. and Netscape, which used Excite technology, claiming those Internet companies had infringed the trademark on "playboy" and "playmate." AOL now owns Netscape.

EBay Inc. has defeated the appeal of a court ruling that protected the online auctioneer from "trademark dilution" by e-commerce rivals with similar-sounding names. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court's ruling in September 2005 against Perfumebay.com and Perfume-bay.com. EBay had argued that the names confused customers, who might think they were on an official EBay site.

In an effort to discourage unauthorized companies from using the Super Bowl to peddle their products, the NFL is seeking to trademark the phrase "the Big Game." But a college football rivalry that began in 1902 might have something to say about that. Stanford and California, whose annual showdown is known as "Big Game," have taken initial steps to oppose the trademark through Collegiate Licensing Co., and have obtained a three-month extension to mull their next move.

Del Taco Inc., the second-largest Mexican American fast-food chain in the nation, has filed suit seeking to force Southland Corp. to stop selling a new El Taco food item at its 7-Eleven stores. In a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Laguna Beach-based Del Taco says Dallas-based Southland is violating its Del Taco trademark, confusing customers and unfairly competing by marketing the new taco, introduced March 4. Del Taco was joined in the complaint by Boca Raton, Fla.

The U.S. maker of Budweiser and Bud Light beers lost a long-running legal battle in Britain on Monday to block a rival Czech brewer using the trademark "Bud." A ruling by the House of Lords, Britain's highest court, stopped a last-ditch attempt by the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch Cos., to revoke Czech state-owned Budejovicky Budvar's ownership of "Bud" in Britain. Britain is Anheuser-Busch's second-largest market.

When the founders of the L.A. clothing brand the Hundreds first met, they were unhappy law school students looking for a way out. Six years after they started designing T-shirts to ease the boredom they felt in class, 29-year-old Bobby Kim and Ben Shenassafar are running a humming business, complete with a website, blog and their own mini-subculture out of a storefront in the Fairfax District and a warehouse near downtown.

The Patent and Trademark Office announced Monday that a scent can qualify for a trademark and decided that the protection applies to perfumed embroidery yarns sold by a Goleta, Calif., woman. "This marks the first time in the history of trademarks that a fragrance has been approved for registration," said Jeffrey M. Samuels, assistant commissioner for trademarks. "We are all familiar with what trademarks look like. Now we'll see what they smell like."