Cases

Cyber law
1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. WhenU. Com,
Inc.
The owner of a website and the mark 1-800 Contacts
sued a competitor and WhenU.com, to enjoin them from
delivering to computer users competitive pop-up Internet
advertisements, in violation of federal and state copyright,
trademark, and unfair competition laws.

On appeal, the Second Circuit threw out the trademark

claims: We hold that as a matter of law, WhenU does not
use 1-800s trademarks within the meaning of the
Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1127, when it includes 1-800s
website address, which is almost identical to 1-800s
trademark, in an unpublished directory of terms that trigger
delivery of WhenUs contextually relevant advertising to
computer users
 Marvel Enterprises Inc. v. NCSoft
Corp
In a later ruling, NCSofts claims that Marvel sent bogus
takedown notices under the false DMCA notification
provisions of 17 U.S.C. 512(f) survived a motion to dismiss.
The court also rejected Marvels argument that a service
provider under Section 512(f) has to be passive and
innocent. Among other things, NCSoft alleged that Marvel
employees created the infringing knock off characters that
Marvel then demanded be removed from NCSofts network.

The case settled in December 2005. The terms of the

settlement have not been publicly reported.