Trademark Litigation: Amazon's Search Results Taken to Task

Imagine a customer visits Amazon.com, hoping to purchase one of Multi Time Machine’s new MTM Special Ops watches. The customer runs a search for “MTM Special Ops,” and indeed, a multitude of watches appear on the screen. However, none of those watches are MTM Special Ops watches, and nothing on Amazon’s search results page alerts the customer to that fact. For that MTM sued Amazon, and recently, a three-judge Ninth Circuit Court panel held 2-1 that a jury could find such search results create a likelihood of confusion sufficient for a finding of trademark infringement.

Have you ever experienced "initial interest confusion" when online shopping? Read more about Trademark Litigation.

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In addition to Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas.  He also co-founded Project K, a charity devoted to changing the world one random act of kindness at a time.  Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer.