Public Service Co. v. Nexus Energy Software

Citation: Public Serv. Co. of N.M. v. Nexus Energy Software, Inc., 36 F.Supp.2d 436 (D. Mass. 1999)(full-text).

Factual Background
Plaintiff, a public utility company, claimed that defendant’s use of the domain name “energyplace.com” and the mark “eNERGY place” in connection with a website offering consumers various services to analyze energy needs infringed its federally registered mark ENERGY PLACE for assorted energy-information services.

Trial Court Proceedings
The court granted plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction, finding that the ENERGY PLACE mark was suggestive and that defendant’s use of a virtually identical mark for closely similar services was likely to cause confusion. Despite some differences in the services and the fact that the parties served different geographic markets, the court determined that both competed on the Internet such that the marks traveled in the same channels of trade. The court ordered defendant to cease all use of the “energyplace.com” domain name.

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