Trademark, Service Mark, and Trade Name Protection and Misappropriation in Cyberspace:A Survey of Changes and Developments in the Law from June 2009-June 2010

摘要

Cyberspace is no longer a wild frontier where the boundaries and contours of trademark law are unknown. In the vast majority of cases, courts apply stan-dard tests and analytical tools, such as the relevant likelihood of confusion test. Even the once wooly area of keyword advertising appears to be reaching a settled state. However, interesting and novel fact patterns continue to emerge in par-ticular cases, and sometimes these fact patterns have no direct analog outside of cyberspace. This requires courts to pick from a number of applicable analogies, to decide what words best describe the cyberspace activity, or to determine what policies should prevail. The pace of online development has not slowed, nor has its use by consumers and businesses to conduct, and discuss, business. We an-ticipate the upcoming survey year to be filled with more cases demonstrating this ongoing stabilization and more cases addressing novel uses of cyberspace.