The federal case may help shape the boundaries of online speech.

[James]

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/business/10114303.htm

Companies have threatened scores of criticism sites with trademark infringement and have lost many of the cases that have gone to court, Seltzer said.

But most of the time, she said, the site owners simply agree to stop before a lawsuit is even filed. Thus, the boundaries of their rights are never tested.

Having this case and others like it go to court should help better define permissible conduct - and perhaps discourage companies from such threats in the future, if they know they would likely lose, Seltzer said.

jim

 

[Garry Anderson]

Many will have seen lucasnursery.com case:

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that this domain did not violate the law when female owner used the name of Lucas Nursery for a Web site she created to complain about them.

http://pacer.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/04a0071p-06.pdf

Here is another:

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/03/03-20243-CV0.wpd.pdf