Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp., 50 U.S.P.Q. 1545 (1999) p.26supp

SUBJECT

acquisition of trademark rights

FACTS

Movie Buff case. D used Movie Buff Movie Store in 1993, then D goes and gets domain name moviebuff.com in 1996. P has been using moviebuff.com since 8/97 (since they registered in PTO. D's first use is 11/98. D wants to tack on store use because he gets back to 1993. If you are going to tack on, the mark must be, in the eyes of the comsuming public,be the same commercial impression as the mark you are now using. ISSUE: will moviebuff.com leave same commercial impression as Movie Buff movie store.

RULE

If you are going to tack on use in order to show that you were using the trademark first, both uses must be very similiar and the majority of the words being used the same in both uses.

RATIONAL

The one you are trying to tack on has 3 additional words (the, movie, Store). Also the new one, has .com which is not in the original.

Created on: Tuesday, January 25, 2000 at 18:29:57 (PST)