Intellectual Property News and Reports

This appeal requires us to clarify what an owner of a federally registered trademark needs to establish in order to mount an infringement action against a user of the trademarked name on goods or services that are not the same as those specified in the owner’s trademark registration. Applied Information Sciences Corp. (AIS) owns the trademark “SmartSearch” for certain computer related search functions, and claims that eBay, Inc. (eBay) uses the name “Smart Search” for its Internet auction website, which AIS contends will be confused with its “SmartSearch” product. The district court rejected the claim, granting summary judgment to eBay, and AIS now appeals. eBay cross-appeals the district court’s order denying attorney’s fees to eBay as the prevailing party. We affirm both the district court’s grant of summary judgment and the denial of attorney’s fees.

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