Boo, Inc. v. Boo.com Group

Citation: Boo, Inc. v. Boo.com Group Ltd., 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3516, 62 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1603 (D. Minn. Feb. 21, 2002).

Factual Background
Plaintiff sold children’s and adult clothing and accessories from 1990 to 1999, but was not a viable entity at the time when it filed this suit. Defendant launched the “boo.com” website in October 2000 as a portal site that offered “click-through” service for clothing retailers.

Trial Court Proceedings
Plaintiff claimed that the name “boo.com” infringed and diluted its common-law mark BOO and constituted unfair competition. On February 21, 2002, the court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment on all of plaintiff’s claims. Although the parties’ marks were identical, all other infringement factors weighed against plaintiff, including weakness of the mark due to use in limited geographic areas, the lack of competition between the parties, and the sophistication of the defendant’s customers &mdash; clothing retailers who had to pay a fee to be included on the site.

The absence of likelihood of confusion was also fatal to plaintiff’s unfair-competition claim. Finally, plaintiff’s dilution claim failed because there was no evidence its mark was famous or strong before defendant launched “boo.com.”

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