Yahoo! v. Shapiro

‘‘‘Citation:’’’ Yahoo! Inc. v. Shapiro, No. C-02-05620 CW (N.D. Cal. Oct. 9, 2003) (Order Adopting Magistrate Judge's Recommendation and Report).

Factual Background
Plaintiff operates the YAHOO! Internet website and owns the famous YAHOO! trademark. Defendants registered the domain name "yahooloans.com" and used it to promote its "Yahoo Loans" online loan business.

Trial Court Proceedings
Plaintiff sued defendants for cybersquatting, trademark infringement, and dilution. Defendants failed to respond to the complaint, and the court entered a default judgment in favor of plaintiff. The court noted that the record fully supported the inference that "defendants attempted to improperly and illegally benefit from [plaintiff's] known intellectual property" and that the disclaimers on defendants' website were "legally insufficient" because of their small font and they were accessible only after the viewer reached the website.

The court enjoined defendants from using the trademark and trade name "Yahoo Loans" and domain name "yahooloans.com," and any mark containing the YAHOO! trademark, or any mark or name likely to cause confusion with, or that would dilute the distinctiveness of, the YAHOO! mark and name. The court also ordered defendants to remove and delist the "yahooloans.com" domain name and website from all search engines and directories in which it appeared. And the court ordered the domain-name registrar to transfer the disputed domain name directly to plaintiff.

Due to defendants' attempt to benefit from plaintiff's trademark, the court ordered defendants to pay $100,000 in statutory damages under the ACPA. Finally, the court awarded plaintiff $36,984.22 in attorney's fees.

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