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Ninth Circuit Refreshes Web Trademark Law

By Jason Hoppin
January 01, 2004

The Playboy bunny hopped out of the nation's largest appellate court recently with a ruling that could put a wrinkle in one Internet advertising business model.

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ' with the reservations of at least one judge on the unanimous panel ' ruled that search engines are barred from displaying advertising related to trademarked search terms. In other words, you can't point customers in the direction of one company if they're searching for another.

“The Internet user will have reached the site because of defendant's use of [the] mark,” Senior Judge Thomas G. Nelson wrote. “Such use is actionable.”

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