Ninth Circuit Finds Amazon’s Search Results Could Constitute Trademark Infringement
Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that liability for trademark infringement could apply if a jury finds that an online retailer’s search results creates a likelihood of consumer confusion.
The case -- Multi Time Machine, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. -- involves Los Angeles watch manufacturer Multi Time Machine (MTM), which sells its military-style watches under the trademarked names of MTM, MTM Military Ops and MTM Special Ops. MTM does not sell its watches on Amazon.com and its distributors are not authorized to sell the watches on Amazon.
MTM filed suit against Amazon for trademark infringement, claiming that when consumers searched for its trademarked names on Amazon’s site, Amazon displayed competitive military-style watches in search results. A district court granted summary judgment for Amazon and MTM appealed.
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Below that query field, the term “MTM Special Ops” appears again in quotation marks. Below that, the name is displayed once more as “Related Searches: MTM Special Ops.”
Appearing under these three iterations of the MTM Special Ops name is a list of images and products for military-style watches made by MTM’s competitors. If the consumer clicks on one of these products, he or she is taken to a product detail page, where the “MTM Special Ops” name still appears in the search field. There is no notation on any of the pages that Amazon does not sell actual MTM
| Raymond Weil, a European manufacturer of premium watches, is trying to compete in the U.S. market with other fine watch brands. Its corporate website contains the following notice: "RAYMOND WEIL products are sold by official dealers only. The RAYMOND WEIL International Guarantee is offered exclusively to consumers in possession of a watch purchased from an official dealer…." In the United States, Raymond Weil watches are not available in every jewelry or department store. For example, in large cities such as Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, there are only three retailers in each city that are official Raymond Weil dealers. Raymond Weil seems to be using:
Thus, the following remedies are proposed to deal with the situation. First, MSL and Macy’s must come together in the presence of their legal experts to mend their differences. Although, it is not clear from the cases whether MSL decided to breach the case out of ignorance or out of gluttony, it is nonetheless critical that both parties hold a joint session. Mending strings will enable both parties to sit down and review the scope of their contracts. It appears from Macke (n. pag.) that Macy’s does not seem to let bygones be bygones, which shows that MSL and Macy’s need to sit down and urgently resolve their differences.
The district court also found that McNeil had failed to show the likelihood of confusion because customers are accustomed to seeing store brand products next to national brands on supermarket shelves and stores. In addition, the district
1. MM possesses a competitive position in this segment in terms of quality product offering and close customer relationships through high level of customer support.
The company’s stocks are listed in the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol M
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The paper that was submitted on behalf of my group included arguments for Canada that were irrelevant to the case. As we discussed on the date of submission, I am submitting this brief correction that will highlight and correct those irrelevancies. Our paper initially cited and falsely compared “New Zealand - Comite Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne v. Wineworths Group, Ltd.” to DS520. The New Zealand case may be used to argue a question of how trademarks are protected if the average consumer can distinguish the difference between a trademarked good and the comparable alternative and the trademark has not become generic. Unfortunately, this case has no relevance to DS520 as the legal issues are completely different.
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