Advance Magazine Publishers v. Vogue

Citation: Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc. v. Vogue Int'l, 123 F. Supp. 2d 790 (D.N.J. 2000).

Factual Background
= Plaintiff, owners of the fashion magazines VOGUE and TEEN VOGUE, filed suit against defendant for trademark infringement, unfair competition, dilution, and cybersquatting under the ACPA, and sought to preliminarily enjoin defendant from using the domain names “teenvogue.com,” “teenvogue.net,” and “vogue-international.com” for websites offering clothing, cosmetics, and fashion accessories for sale.

Trial Court Decision
The court held that plaintiff established a substantial likelihood of success on its trademark infringement and unfair competition claims by establishing a likelihood of confusion. Plaintiff also prevailed on its ACPA claim by showing that (1) the VOGUE trademarks were famous when defendant registered] the disputed [[domain names in early 2000, (2) defendant’s use of the marks in connection with an inferior website and to market inferior products would likely dilute the VOGUE marks, and (3) defendant had a bad faith intent to profit from the infringement of the marks as he worked in the fashion industry, he was aware of the prominence of VOGUE magazine when he registered the domain names, and he admitted to a private investigator that he was capitalizing on the fame of VOGUE magazine.

The court preliminarily enjoined defendant from "maintaining, transferring, or using the domain names teenvogue.com, teenvogue.net, and vogueinternational.com, and the company name Vogue International.” The court did not identify any specific defenses asserted by defendant, apparently because defendant, appearing pro se, failed to submit an opposition brief or appear at the hearing.