The Federal Court recently released its decision in the case brought by the owners of thredbo.com.au against thredbo.com.
The decision is: Kosciuszko Thredbo Pty Limited v ThredboNet Marketing Pty Limited [2013] FCA 563
A blog relating to Internet legal issues by Professor John Swinson, University of Queensland
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realestate.com.au Federal Court decision
On Friday, the Federal Court of Australia handed down its decision in the realestate.com.au v. realestate1.com.au case.
The decision is [2013] FCA 539.
The case concerned a generic term, that was used as a domain name, but where significant advertising had built up recognition of the brand. The Applicant lost on consumer protection grounds but was successful in relation to trade mark infringement. The case shows the risks of using a dictionary term as a brand, and the importance of a trade mark registration.
"245 However that observation about the ordinary case does not really address (as neither Perram J nor Chesterman J were called upon to address) a situation where the highly descriptive nature of the second-level domain (“realestate”) makes a suffix such as “.com.au” essential to brand or name recognition. Consumers with some familiarity with realestate.com.au as a brand are likely to look beyond “realestate” and to the entire domain name in order to establish identity. A real danger of confusion again arises because in the scanning process which may occur on a search results page, some consumers will miss the indistinctive “1”. I have therefore concluded that the use of “realestate1.com.au” as part of an internet address on a search results page, constituted the use by Real Estate 1 of a mark that was deceptively similar to REA’s realestate.com.au trade marks."
The decision is [2013] FCA 539.
The case concerned a generic term, that was used as a domain name, but where significant advertising had built up recognition of the brand. The Applicant lost on consumer protection grounds but was successful in relation to trade mark infringement. The case shows the risks of using a dictionary term as a brand, and the importance of a trade mark registration.
"245 However that observation about the ordinary case does not really address (as neither Perram J nor Chesterman J were called upon to address) a situation where the highly descriptive nature of the second-level domain (“realestate”) makes a suffix such as “.com.au” essential to brand or name recognition. Consumers with some familiarity with realestate.com.au as a brand are likely to look beyond “realestate” and to the entire domain name in order to establish identity. A real danger of confusion again arises because in the scanning process which may occur on a search results page, some consumers will miss the indistinctive “1”. I have therefore concluded that the use of “realestate1.com.au” as part of an internet address on a search results page, constituted the use by Real Estate 1 of a mark that was deceptively similar to REA’s realestate.com.au trade marks."
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