Nike, Inc. v. Circle Group Internet, Inc.

318 F. Supp. 2d 688, 70 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1853, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9341, 2004 WL 1146158
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMay 21, 2004
Docket02 C 7192
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 318 F. Supp. 2d 688 (Nike, Inc. v. Circle Group Internet, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Nike, Inc. v. Circle Group Internet, Inc., 318 F. Supp. 2d 688, 70 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1853, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9341, 2004 WL 1146158 (N.D. Ill. 2004).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

GETTLEMAN, District Judge.

Plaintiff Nike, Inc. filed a four-count complaint seeking damages and injunctive relief against defendant Circle Group Internet, Inc., alleging that defendant’s use of the domain name <justdoit.net> constitutes: cybersquatting under the Anticy-bersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d) (Count I); trademark infringement in violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1114(1), and the common law of various states, including Illinois (Count II); unfair competition under the common law of various states, including Illinois, as well as a violation of the Illinois Deceptive Trade Practices Act, 815 ILCS §§ 510/1 et seq. (Count III); and dilution in violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c) (Count IV).

Defendant has moved for summary judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) on Count IV, and plaintiff has moved for summary judgment on Count I. For the reasons discussed herein, plaintiffs motion for summary judgment is granted and defendant’s motion for summary judgment is denied.

FACTS 1

Plaintiff Nike is a sports and fitness company that designs, manufactures, and markets a broad range of footwear, apparel and equipment. Since 1988, plaintiff has continuously used and promoted the trademark “JUST DO IT” in the United States and worldwide in connection with footwear, apparel, equipment, retail store services, web-based communication, informational services, advertising, and other related goods and services. Plaintiff owns valid and subsisting federal trademark registrations issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its JUST DO IT mark, including Reg. Nos. 1,817,919 (registered on January 25, 1994) and 1,875,307 (registered on January 24, 1995). Plaintiffs exclusive right to use these registrations has become incontestable under 15 U.S.C. §§ 1065 and 1115.

Plaintiff has spent hundreds of millions of dollars advertising and promoting its JUST DO IT mark and has sold tens of millions of dollars in apparel under that mark. Plaintiff has produced advertisements featuring JUST DO IT annually since 1990, and has further produced apparel featuring that mark every season since 1990. Plaintiff also owns the cjust-doit.com> domain name.

Defendant Circle Group Internet, Inc., which was started in 1994, is a company engaged in the business of assisting emerging companies trying to build their business infrastructure. On or about February 20, 1997, defendant registered the domain name <justdoit.net> with Network Solutions, Inc. and began using it for the purpose of employee email addresses. From 1999 to 2002, defendant also used the <justdoit.net> domain name to redirect internet users to its web sites at < circlegroupinternet.com > and < crgq.com >.

Defendant makes no use of the JUST DO IT mark or the phrase “just do it” on its website, and has no trademark registrations or applications for the JUST DO IT mark. Nor is JUST DO IT part of defendant’s legal name or the legal name of any individual in the company. Defendant at no time provided goods or services in connection with the <justdoit.net> domain *690 name, which was merely used as a redirect to defendant’s primary websites.

As of the mid- to late-nineties, defendant’s CEO, Gregory Halpern, was aware that plaintiff used JUST DO IT. Moreover, in his deposition, Halpern acknowledged that it was possible that he knew of plaintiffs use of the JUST DO IT phrase prior to registering <justdoit.net>.

According to Halpern, he chose cjust-doit.net> as his company’s domain name because it is a positive, catchy and motivational phrase that he has been using for over thirty years, as well as in his book / Care About You, which was published by Can-Do Publishing Company, Inc. in 1978. According to the declaration of Ashly Ia-cullo, attached to plaintiffs reply, however, I Care About You does not contain the phrase “just do it,” and defendant has not directed the court’s attention to any excerpt of the book that recites that phrase. Further, in its own review of the book, the court also could not locate the phrase “just do it.” Nor has defendant provided any other evidence that would corroborate Hal-pern’s testimony that he used the phrase consistently over the past thirty years.

On June 13, 2002, plaintiff filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center (“WIPO”) regarding defendant’s use of the <justdoit.net> domain name. A majority of the WIPO panel concluded that Nike was unable to show that Circle Internet Group registered the cjust-doit.net> domain name in bad faith, relying at least in part on Circle Internet Group’s representation that cjust-doit.net> was used as its main web page. In reaching that conclusion, however, the majority opinion noted that using the domain name as a redirect to its own web page “could potentially qualify as ‘bad faith’ use.” (Emphasis added.)

With this background in mind, the court turns to the standards governing the instant motions for summary judgment.

SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARD

A movant is entitled to summary judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56 when the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with any affidavits, show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and the mov-ant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Unterreiner v. Volkswagen of America, Inc., 8 F.3d 1206, 1209 (7th Cir.1993). Once a moving party has met its burden, the non-moving party must go beyond the pleadings and set forth specific facts showing there is a genuine issue for trial. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e); Becker v. Tenenbaum-Hill Assoc., Inc., 914 F.2d 107, 110 (7th Cir.1990). The nonmoving party “must do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts.” Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp.,

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318 F. Supp. 2d 688, 70 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1853, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9341, 2004 WL 1146158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nike-inc-v-circle-group-internet-inc-ilnd-2004.