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''Playboy v. Netscape'', 354 F.3d 1020 (9th Cir. 2004) was a case regarding trademark infringement and trademark dilution decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Playboy Enterprises Inc. took legal action against Netscape Communications Corp. and Excite, Inc., accusing them of infringement and dilution of Playboy's marks "playboy" and "playmate".〔http://www.internetlibrary.com/cases/lib_case336.cfm〕 ==Facts== Netscape allows advertisers to target specific users of its search engine by displaying certain ads to certain people, depending on what the user searches for. The display and profiting of ads by a search engine operators such as Netscape is referred to as "keying." This "keying" technique is considered more effective than random ads. Netscape uses this technique for adult entertainment and has a list of terms for which to display related ads. This list contains the terms "playboy" and "playmate" which are trademarked by Playboy. Netscape displays ads for various companies in response to those search terms, which includes Playboy's competitors. Playboy claims that Netscape's use of those terms in its keying technique constitutes trademark infringement. In addition, by displaying competitor's ads that are not obviously from a competitor at first glance, Playboy claims that Netscape has committed trademark dilution. Netscape displayed banner ads of a company similar to Playboy, however Netscape did not specify the secondary company’s name. Playboy argued that, upon viewing their banners and those of the other company similar in nature, the user would become confused and assume they were both under ownership of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. This action is legally considered trademark infringement under the initial interest confusion act. According to the Ninth Circuit, failing to sufficiently identify the source of a banner advertisement could result in trademark infringement on the part of the search engine operator in accordance with the ‘initial interest confusion’ doctrine. There is no infringement provided the ads are properly labeled and identified with the advertiser’s marks as the consumer is aware of the source of the advertisement and the definite website to which the advertisement will direct him. The defendants profited from the plaintiff by keying through the display of banner ads in conjunction with one of four hundred search terms which included “Playboy” and “playmate”, two of the plaintiff’s registered trademarks. The defendants has multiple advertisers whose ad banners would display upon the presence of these search terms. The ads were not required by the defendants to be identified as to their source. Thus upon the search of the plaintiff’s registered marks Playboy and Playmate, outside advertisers were able to connect their banner’s to these search queries without the need to specify the ad’s source to the patrons browsing the web. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Netscape Communications Corp.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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