A trademark lawsuit filed by popular grocery store chain, Trader Joe’s, against a cryptocurrency platform called “Trader Joe”—which the complaint alleges is a deliberate reference to the supermarket—has come to light this week. Trader Joe’s claims that the crypto firm buried its origin story in order to win international litigation over the domain name, traderjoexyz.com. Trader Joe’s has offered grocery services under the mark TRADER JOE’S for more than 50 years. According to the lawsuit, a co-founder of the crypto company Trader Joe, going by the handle “cryptofish,” admitted in a Substack publication that the company’s name originally derived from the name of the Trader Joe’s supermarket chain.
Despite being codified more than 20 years ago, there are many open questions regarding application of the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d) (“ACPA”). Certainly, domain name conflicts continue to evolve given the continued importance of the domain name system to the Internet and the constant changes in both technology and strategies of offenders. But there are also open questions in the application of the cybersquatting law itself, including the applicability and application of statutes of limitations. Does a statute of limitations apply to ACPA claims? If so, how long is it? And from when does it run? This article discusses the relatively small body of law that analyzes statutes of limitations for cybersquatting claims under the ACPA.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled earlier today that a stylized form of the trademark for the .SUCKS domain name failed to create a “separate commercial impression” warranting registration by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Vox Populi Registry Ltd. is the domain registry operator for the controversial .SUCKS generic top-level domain (gTLD). The USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) in October 2020 affirmed an examiner’s decision to refuse the stylized mark, as well as the standard character word mark for .SUCKS.
On August 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a decision in Boigris v. EWC P&T, LLC in which the appellate court affirmed a ruling by the Southern District of Florida granting summary judgment to EWC, the owner of the nationwide European Wax Center chain of beauty salons, on cybersquatting claims filed against the owner of several GoDaddy domains that were registered in bad faith to profit from EWC’s stores. Although the majority found that the accused domain names and EWC’s registered trademarks were confusingly similar in sight, sound and meaning, the dissent raises interesting questions regarding the proper standard on confusing similarity at the summary judgment stage.
On November 8, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a Petition for Writ of Certiorari from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on the following issue: “Whether the addition by an online business of a generic top-level domain (“.com”) to an otherwise generic term can create a protectable trademark.” The issue stems from Booking.com B.V.’s attempt to register four versions of the trademark “booking.com” for, among other services, “making hotel reservations for others.” The applications, filed in 2011 and 2012, were refused by the USPTO on the grounds that “booking” and “.com” are generic terms which, when combined, nonetheless create a generic term which describes the travel agency and reservation services. In general, generic terms do not function as trade or service marks and cannot be registered.