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Over-Reaching
AOL Loses a Battle in Their Trademark War Against
Advertise.com - Will Decision Impact the Aborted $1.4
Million Sale of Ad.com?
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A
Federal Appellate Court
has ruled
against AOL and given Advertise.com
the right to continue doing business under their
generic domain name. A three-judge
panel representing the |
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9th Circuit
Court of Appeals stayed an injunction that
would have required Advertise.com to stop using
the name, which according to AOL, violates a
trademark they hold for Advertising.com.
AOL said that Advertise.com was tricking
companies into believing that it was affiliated
with AOL's Advertising.com and the shorthand
term they have used for that site - Ad.com -
despite the fact that AOL doesn't even own the
domain Ad.com! |
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Advertise.com argued that
whatever marks AOL registered for Advertising.com are generic,
and therefore, subject to cancellation. The court
did not give a reason for its 2-1 decision in favor of
Advertise.com but the fact that generic words are at the
heart of the dispute was likely a key factor.
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Moniker's
John Mauriello (left) with
Divyank Turakhia immediately after
Turakhia placed a $1.4 million
winning bid for Ad.com in April 2009. |
With respect to
Ad.com, AOL believes the owner of that name is
also infringing on their Advertising.com mark and
they have applied for a trademark on
Ad.com to buttress their claim (others say
their claim to the generic domain and trademark application
are a blatant attempt at reverse domain hijacking).
The possibility that AOL would go after the owner of the Ad.com
domain name scuttled a $1.4 million sale
of the domain that was made during a live
auction at the April 2009
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Silicon Valley conference. Directi
Co-Founder Divyank Turakhia placed the
winning bid of $1.4 million but soon after the
auction ended he learned that AOL was claiming
rights to the name. Believing that he had been
sold an expensive legal dispute with the
Internet giant that he had not been aware of,
Turakhia declined to complete the sale, which
resulted in the seller, Marcos Guillen,
and the auctioneer (Oversee.net's Moniker.com)
filing a suit against Turakhia's company. |
The stay of the injunction
against Advertise.com does not end their legal battle
with AOL, but it was an important round for
Advertise.com to win. If the appellate process ends with
AOL's claims rejected once and for all, as we believe it
should, that would also clear the way for the owner of
Ad.com to complete a sale of his domain without
unjustified interference from AOL who threw a monkey
wrench into his seven-figure transaction. |
