PaineWebber v. www.painewebber.com

Citation: PaineWebber, Inc. v. www.painewebber.com, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6552 (E.D. Va. Apr. 9, 1999)

Factual Background
Defendant registered the domain name "wwwpainewebber.com," a misspelling of plaintiff's domain name in that it omitted a period after "www." The site linked visitors to pornographic websites.

Trial Court Proceedings
Plaintiff sought preliminary relief, arguing that defendant's registration and use of the domain name constituted trademark dilution. The court found that plaintiff's mark was famous and would be diluted by being linked with pornography, and thus granted a temporary restraining order on April 2, 1999, and a preliminary injunction on April 9, 1999.

The court preliminarily enjoined defendant from operating, maintaining, or sponsoring any website identified with the domain name, and from selling, disposing, or otherwise terminating his rights to the domain name. The court also ordered Network Solutions, Inc. ("NSI") to put the domain name on hold until the parties' rights to it were determined by the court.

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