Seattle Laptop v. A-1 Best Computer

Citation: Seattle Laptop, Inc. v. A-1 Best Computer, Inc., 79 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1702 (W.D. Wash. 2006).

Factual Background
Both plaintiff and defendant sold and repaired laptop computers from their respective stores in Seattle, Washington. Plaintiff operated a website at "seattlelaptop.com." Defendant owned the domain names "seattlelaptops.com" and "seattlelaptoprepair.com," among other "Seattle laptop" domain names. Defendant began using the two disputed domain names to redirect users to defendant's primary website at "A1bestcomputer.com." Plaintiff sued for cybersquatting under the ACPA and moved for summary judgment.

Trial Court Proceedings
The court held that plaintiff did not meet its burden for summary judgment because it fell short of demonstrating bad faith on the part of defendant. In particular, defendant stopped using the domain names "less than a month" after first using them and offered to transfer the domain names to plaintiff for free. The court also held that defendant had a strong argument that the Seattle laptop mark was neither distinctive nor famous because both "Seattle" and "laptop" were "such obvious terms to use in promoting a Seattle business that deals in laptops."

This page uses content from Finnegan’s Internet Trademark Case Summaries. This entry is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.