1-800 CONTACTS, INC. v. Lens. Com, Inc.

755 F. Supp. 2d 1151, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132389, 2010 WL 5150800
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedDecember 14, 2010
Docket2:07-cr-00591
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 755 F. Supp. 2d 1151 (1-800 CONTACTS, INC. v. Lens. Com, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
1-800 CONTACTS, INC. v. Lens. Com, Inc., 755 F. Supp. 2d 1151, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132389, 2010 WL 5150800 (D. Utah 2010).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

CLARK WADDOUPS, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

The parties in this action sell replacement contact lenses over the Internet. 1-800 Contacts, Inc. (“Plaintiff’) is the owner of certain service marks and contends that Lens.com, Inc. (“Defendant”) has used the service marks in commerce without its consent. Specifically, Plaintiff contends that Defendant and its affiliates bid on the service marks as keywords to generate a sponsored link for Defendant on Google and other search engines. Moreover, because Defendant’s sponsored links were generated when a consumer entered “1800Contacts” as the search term, the sponsored links were likely to cause confusion as to source, affiliation, or sponsorship.

Plaintiff moves for partial summary judgment on its claims for trademark infringement and secondary liability. It also moves for summary judgment on Defendant’s defense that its use of Plaintiffs mark as a keyword is not a “use in commerce.” Finally, it moves for summary judgment on Defendant’s descriptiveness and fair use defenses. In turn, Defendant moves for summary judgment and seeks dismissal of all claims and causes of action in the Amended Complaint. The court grants Plaintiffs motion on Defendant’s defense that purchase of a keyword is not a use in commerce. The court otherwise denies Plaintiffs motion for summary judgment. Although purchase of a keyword is a use in commerce, Defendant is nonetheless entitled to summary judgment on all claims and causes of action in the Amended Complaint for the reasons discussed .below.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND 1

General Business Facts

Plaintiff sells replacement contact lenses through various channels, including the Internet. It owns two service marks, which were registered in 2003. 2 One service mark is the word mark “1 800CON-TACTS” and the other service mark is the following stylized word mark:

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Because the marks have been in use for more than five years, they are statutorily incontestable. 3 Since its inception in 1995, Plaintiff has spent over $220 million in advertising through television, radio, newspapers, the Internet, e-mail, and direct *1158 mail. 4 Between 2003 and 2008, Plaintiff spent $11 million advertising with Google alone. 5 For at least five years, Plaintiff has retained Synovate to conduct “awareness” surveys to determine the strength of its service marks. In 2008, Plaintiffs mark ranked first in consumer awareness among contact lens wearers. 6

Defendant also sells replacement contact lenses, and has been in competition with Plaintiff since 1998. It owns the service mark “1-800-GET-LENS.” 7 The service mark was registered on May 21, 2002 by another company, but Defendant subsequently acquired the mark. 8 Defendant also has previously claimed common trademark rights to “1-800 Lens.com” and recently obtained federal registration of it. 9 Unlike Plaintiff, Defendant only advertises on the Internet. Between 2003 and 2008, Defendant spent between $3 million to $4.7 million in Internet advertising. 10 Besides marketing and selling contact lenses in similar channels of trade, Plaintiff and “Lens.com sell essentially the same contact lens products and directly compete for customers.” 11

Google Search Results

“Google is an Internet company that owns and operates one of the world’s most utilized internet search engines.” 12 “A search engine is a computer program that allows web users to search the World Wide Web for websites containing particular content.” 13 When a search term is entered, the search engine compares the term “against its databases and applies a formula or algorithm to produce a search-results page that lists the websites that may relate to the user’s search terms.” 14 Google’s search engine has a “natural or organic system that lists results in order of objective relevance to the search terms input into the search engine, with the most relevant websites appearing near the top of the web page.” 15 In addition, the search-results page lists paid advertisements “above or to the right of the organic search results.” 16 These paid advertisements are referred to as “sponsored links.”

“Google’s AdWords program is the keyword-triggered advertising program that generates the Sponsored Links section on the search-results screen.” 17 Advertisers *1159 bid on certain words or phrases, known as “keywords.” 18 When a user’s search term matches an advertiser’s keyword, a sponsored link appears for that advertiser, The order and location of the sponsored link depends on the amount bid for the keyword and the quality of the advertisement. 19 Consequently, the advertiser does not pay to be listed in a specific order on the search-results page.

When bidding on a keyword, an advertiser “may specify whether keywords should be applied as a ‘broad match,’ ‘phrase match,’ ‘exact match,’ or ‘negative match.’ ” 20 When an advertiser designates a keyword as a “broad match,” its sponsored link will appear anytime “a search is conducted for that keyword, its plural forms, its synonyms, or phrases similar to the word.” 21 When an advertiser designates a keyword as a “phrase match,” its sponsored “link will appear when a user searches for a particular phrase,” even if the user includes other terms before or after the phrase. 22 When an advertiser designates a keyword as an “exact match,” then its sponsored link will appear “only when the exact phrase bid on is searched on Google.” 23 In contrast, when an advertiser designates a keyword as a “negative match,” the advertiser “ensure[s] that its link [will] not appear when certain terms are searched.” 24 For example, a contact lens seller may specify that its link should not appear when the phrase “contact lists” is entered. 25

Both parties in this action pay for advertisement on a “cost-per-click” basis.

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Bluebook (online)
755 F. Supp. 2d 1151, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132389, 2010 WL 5150800, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/1-800-contacts-inc-v-lens-com-inc-utd-2010.