General Motors v. Hummer Advertising

Citation: General Motors Corp. v. Hummer Advertising, Civ. A. No. 03-74598 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 18, 2004).

Factual Background
Plaintiff makes and sells the popular HUMMER motor vehicles. Defendants, operating under the name Hummer Advertising, registered the domain names "hummeradvertising.com," "h2ads.com," "hum-r.com," and "hummads.com" and used them to promote their mobile-display advertising services (i.e., ads placed on HUMMER vehicles).

Trial Court Proceedings
Plaintiff sued defendant for infringement, dilution, cybersquatting, and other claims regarding defendants' business name and domain names as well as their logo consisting of the outline of a HUMMER vehicle. The parties stipulated to a permanent consent injunction finding that: (1) defendants' use of the business name Hummer Advertising infringed and diluted plaintiff's trademark rights, (2) defendant's use of the disputed domain names "violate[d]" plaintiff's rights, and (3) defendants' use of the shape and trade dress of HUMMER vehicles in its logo and its advertising "violates [plaintiff's] trademark rights."

The court permanently enjoined defendants from using the business name Hummer Advertising and any confusingly similar names, the disputed domain names, and plaintiff's trade dress. The court also ordered defendants to transfer the disputed domain names (and any other domain names that contain the HUMMER marks or confusingly similar terms) to plaintiff and to pay plaintiff's attorney's fees and costs in the amount of $11,500.

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