Merchant Warehouse.com, Inc. (Boston, MA) sued Nova Merchant Funding, Inc. (Brooklyn, NY) and its principal operator for copyright infringement and DMCA violation related to copying and use of portions of MW’s website by the defendants and trademark infringement for purchasing sponsored links on Google. Both companies sell credit card machines and related processing services over the internet.
Plaintiff alleges copying of at least nine pages of material. The complaint alleges that following a letter notifying defendant of the similarity it blamed its webmaster and agreed to take the offending material down, but didn’t.
The complaint also alleges that defendant purchased a sponsored link with Google so that when a user does a search for “Merchant Warehouse” an active link for defendant’s website appears next to the search results.
This doesn’t seem like a case that will go the distance, but I’d love to hear a judge from D. Mass. (and ultimately the First Circuit) weigh in on the sponsored links controversy. Other courts have ruled that such purchases do not constitute trademark infringement. I wonder what D. Mass. would say.
Merchant Warehouse.com, Inc. v. Nova Merchant Funding, Inc., 10-10458-MLW (D. Mass. Mar. 17, 2010)
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