Supreme Court Curbs Trademarks' Reach On Domains

from the sounds-good dept

In what's being called a "surprise decision" by the Supreme Court today, they ruled that companies need to prove that disparaging domain names that use their company name need to prove that the other sites "reduce the capacity of the famous mark to identify the goods of its owner." This could apply to plenty of domain-name trademark lawsuits where big companies assume they have the rights to any domain with their name in it, based on trademark law. This ruling means those companies first need to prove the alternative domains dilute the value of their trademark.
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