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Keyword Deception Is Common In Political Web Sites
Article describing politicians' prodigious keyword piracy. Article found Dan Quayle to be most prodigious pirate (among non-pirated keywords on Quayle's site was "potatoe").

Playboy Enterprises v. Welles, No. 98-CV-0413-K JFS (SD CA, April 22, 1998)
Press account of Playboy's suit against its former playmate, Terri Welles. Welles erected a website featuring her work; the site used Playboy's trademarked terms "Playboy" and "Playmate" in its metatags. The court denied Playboy's motion for a preliminary injunction, ruling that Welles had made fair use of the terms. The 9th Circuit affirmed. Welles' site contains a page with most of the pleadings and orders in the case. Warning: the page contains links to non-legal topics.

Niton Corp. v. Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc., No. Civ.A. 98-11629-REK (D. Mass., Nov. 18, 1998)
Both plaintiff and defendant manufacture lead testing equipment. Defendant used plaintiff's name and names of its products in its own metatags. Court granted preliminary injunction to plaintiff on unfair competition cause of action.

Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp., 174 F.3d 1036 (9th Cir. 1999)
West Coast, a video retailer, used the term "moviebuff" in its metatags. Brookfield, which runs a movie database site, "MovieBuff.com," alleged trademark infringement. Court held that West Coast's use of term in metatags led to "initial interest confusion," in which search engine users looking for MovieBuff.com's site might visit West Coast's site and stop looking for MovieBuff.com, despite no confusion over sponsorship of the two sites. Court distinguished both Niton and Welles.

 
 

 

 

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