Puzzling 9th Circuit Dilution Opinion Over eVisa.com–Visa v. JSL
6 07 2010By Eric Goldman
VISA International Service Ass’n v. JSL Corp., No. 08-15206 (9th Cir. June 28, 2010)
A number of us in the trademark community are scratching our heads at last week’s Ninth Circuit trademark dilution opinion, authored by Judge Kozinski. The case involves evisa.com, run by Joseph Orr.
. . . . the case poses two doctrinal problems for dilution. First, eVisa.com is not the same trademark as “Visa.” As the opinion says, the “marks here are effectively identical.” Well, yes and no….
Second, and perhaps more importantly, the word “Visa” already has several dictionary definitions. This poses a problem for the blurring analysis.
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