Question

.Read the following scenario and answer the question in 5-10 sentences.

You work for a soda shop that is known for producing original soda recipes, where flavored syrups are added to different types of soda to create particular flavors. One example might be German Chocolate Cake, made by adding coconut, pecan and chocolate flavors to a particular brand of soda. You offer your sodas "regular" or "grungy." A grungy soda has heavy cream added to it to enhance the flavors. Your market research, and your sales, indicate that customers love sodas made "grungy" and affiliate that term with your company. Your company has trademarked the term "grungy" as it applies to flavor additives to sodas and other drinks. A competitor of yours, that also makes flavored soda drinks, also adds flavor enhancers. They have created two different webpages, haveitgrungy.com and grungysoda.com. Discuss whether you have any claim under the ACPA.

Answer 1

Yes, I can claim under Anti-cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). According to it trademark holders now have a cause of action against anyone who, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of another’s trademark, or uses a domain name that is identical, or confusingly similar to a distinctive mark of a famous trademark, without regard to the goods or services of the parties. A trademark owner that wins a cyber-squatting lawsuit can recover money damages. Trademark owner can also get an order canceling the defendant’s registration of the offending domain name or transferring it to trademark owner. The term cyber-squatting described as a registering, using, or selling a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from someone else’s trademark. In this case I trademark the word “grungy” and my competitor uses this word to make two websites. It can confuse the customers and they make purchase from the competitor and thought that they purchased from our shop. This is not ethically correct to confuse the customers and enjoy profit on someone else's trademark, without giving any regard to the trademark owner.

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