Court Rules In Favor Of Domain Owner Using Trademark To Criticize The Company
 

Interesting legal case where the court ruled in favor of the domain owner using BosleyMedical.com to criticize the company because the owner of the domain had a hair restoration done and wasn't happy with the results.

Bosley claimed the domain owner was infringing on their company trademark by using it in the domain.

The court ruled against Bosley.

Full details on this link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...h&sid=95573501

This is interesting and perhaps more of us should take notice about this.

I think this is wrong. This person purchased a domain name that is the company name and used it to slam a company (or hospital, whatever). Free speech is the right to take out an ad in the newspaper, not use a domain name that can be confused for an offical company website.

In other words, I have every right to purhcase "ibillsucks.com" but not something like "ibillmedia.com". The big difference is that the second domain can be confused for a official company website.

Um no...

Free speech is just about that.. Free speech.

This definately sets an interesting precident though... Off to see what domains i can register now :Graucho

Regards,

Lee

Indeed, this opens some very interesting loopholes to slam a company.

i'm with rochard TOTALLY on this - and hope this case gets overturned

I agree with Roc also. I think it's wrong.

Very interesting news report. Thanks for posting, KRL.

Welcome. Got to stay on top of these legal cases that set unexpected precedents. They can have a major impact on what we all do.

Free speech still has its price.

A similar outcome happened awhile ago in favor of 2600 redirecting a domain.

Someone should get one related to Paypal... fuck I hate paypal so much these days.

Here's the meat of the ruling:

But the appeals court disagreed, saying the Web site was not created to make a profit or to confuse Bosley's customers and potential clients. There were no links on the site to other hair-restoration providers, the court noted.

Wow, I dont think that's going to hold up for too long.
I just can't see someone registering a CO's name and using it for straight bashing (no links, no ppc ... no purpose)

so cay i use microsot.com to criticize Microsoft ?

He registered the domain 5 years ago, and it should be obvious that the website has a purpose

Well... the 9th Circuit isn't exactly the Supreme Court's favorite appellate circuit. I think a study was published some years back showing that the 9th Circuit has the most reversed rulings among all the appeals courts. Wouldn't suprise me a bit--the 9th Circuit is, on average, quite liberal which is in stark opposition to the Supreme Court's conservative trend. Should be interesting how this plays out.

I don't think there is anything new in this. Criticism sites are well established as not taking advantage of trademark/goodwill/copyright.

paypalsucks.com , aolsucks.org , brucespringsteen.com (not a criticism site but a fan site which doesn't exploit copyright)