PACCAR, Inc. v. TeleScan Technologies, L.L.C.

115 F. Supp. 2d 772, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12857, 2000 WL 1246431
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedAugust 25, 2000
Docket99-76199
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 115 F. Supp. 2d 772 (PACCAR, Inc. v. TeleScan Technologies, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
PACCAR, Inc. v. TeleScan Technologies, L.L.C., 115 F. Supp. 2d 772, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12857, 2000 WL 1246431 (E.D. Mich. 2000).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER GRANTING PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

COHN, District Judge.

I. Introduction

This is a trademark infringement case. Plaintiff PACCAR, Inc. (PACCAR) owns a number of U.S. trademark registrations for the marks “Peterbilt” and “Kenworth.” PACCAR is suing defendant TeleScan Technologies, L.L.C. (TeleScan) for trademark infringement and trademark dilution for TeleScan’s use of PACCAR’s trademarks within several of TeleScan’s web site domain names. Now before the Court is PACCAR’s motion for a preliminary injunction 1 (1) enjoining TeleScan from using the names “Peterbilt” and “Kenworth” in any of TeleScan’s domain names, meta-tags, web pages, or web sites, and (2) causing TeleScan to transfer registration and ownership of the domain names containing “Peterbilt” and “Kenworth” to PACCAR. For the reasons that follow, the motion will be granted. 2

II. Facts

A. The parties

1.

PACCAR is a manufacturer of heavy trucks and truck parts under the “Peter-bilt” and “Kenworth” trademarks. Peter-bilt Motors Company and Kenworth Truck Company, both divisions of PACCAR, have been manufacturing trucks under their respective names for over 50 years. PAC-CAR has invested substantial amounts of money in developing, marketing, and advertising the Peterbilt and Kenworth marks. PACCAR permits authorized Pet-erbilt and Kenworth dealers to use the Peterbilt and Kenworth marks in their businesses. PACCAR has not licensed or authorized TeleScan to use the Peterbilt and Kenworth marks.

In addition to its manufacturing business, PACCAR administers a used truck locator service on its web site, found at <umnv.paccar. com >. This service allows consumers to search a database of Peter-bilt and Kenworth trucks available for sale from Peterbilt and Kenworth dealers using 12 different search fields including model, year, and location.

2.

TeleScan is the owner of several web sites providing truck locator services, including one found at <www.truckscan.com >. Using the truckscan.com web site, consumers can search for new and used trucks either by viewing listings by dealer, or by searching a database of the participating dealers using 11 different search *775 terms. Presumably, the individual dealers pay TeleScan to be included on its web sites and in its databases.

Another of TeleScan’s web sites, found at < immu.telescanequipment.com >, provides consumers with manufacturer-specific links to TeleScan’s other web sites such as those found at, inter alia:

<mmu.peterbilttrucks.com >,
<muiu.peterbiltneiutrucks.com >,
<immu.peterbiltusedtrucks.com >,
<wmu.peterbiltdealers.com >,
<imuw.peterbilttruckdealers.com >,
<immu.kemuorthnewtrucks.com >,
<unmu.kemuorthusedtrucks.com >,
<wmu.kemuorthdealers.com >, and
<%mmju.kemuor thtruckdealers.com >.

(domain names). See Exhibit A attached. 3 (For reasons unknown to the Court, these manufacturer-specific web sites appear to be currently out of service.) In addition to being linked to the telescanequipment.com web site, the manufacturer-specific web sites can also be accessed independently by using their domain name address. On the manufacturer-specific web sites, there are links to listings of the particular manufacturer’s trucks and dealers. There is also a disclaimer on each manufacturer-specific web site which states: “This website provides a listing service for name brand products and has no affiliation with any manufacturer whose branded products are listed here.”

B. Domain names and the Internet

The Ninth Circuit recently gave an excellent description of the Internet and domain names, as follows:

The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers which allow users around the world to communicate and share information. The Web, a collection of information resources contained in documents located on individual computers around the world, is the most widely used and fastest-growing part of the Internet, except perhaps for electronic mail (“e-mail”). With the Web becoming an important mechanism for commerce, companies are racing to stake out their place in cyberspace. Prevalent on the Web are multimedia “web pages” [or web sites] — computer data files written in Hypertext Markup Language (“HTML”), — which contain information such as text, pictures, sounds, audio and video recordings, and links to other web pages.
Each web page has a corresponding domain address, which is an identifier somewhat analogous to a telephone number or street address. Domain names consist of a second-level domain — simply a term or series of terms (e.g., westcoastvideo) — -followed by a top-level domain, many of which describe the nature of the enterprise. Top-level domains include ‘‘.com” (commercial), “.edu” (educational), “.org” (non-profit and miscellaneous organizations), “.gov” (government), “.net” (networking provider), and “.mil” (military). Commercial entities generally use the “.com” top-level domain, which also serves as a catchall top-level domain_ Each web page must have a unique domain name....
Using a Web browser, such as Netscape’s Navigator or Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, a cyber “surfer” may navigate the Web — searching for, communicating with, and retrieving information from various web sites. A specific web site is most easily located by using its domain name. Upon entering a domain name into the web browser, the corresponding web site will quickly appear on the computer screen. Sometimes, however,, a Web surfer will not know the domain name of the site he is looking for, whereupon he has two principal options: trying, to guess the domain name, or seeking the assistance of an Internet “search engine” [such as Yahoo!].
*776 Oftentimes, an Internet user will begin by hazarding a guess at the domain name, especially if there is an obvious domain name to try. Web users often assume, as a rule of thumb, that the domain name of a particular company will be the company name followed by “.com”.... Sometimes, a trademark is better known that the company itself, in which case a Web surfer may assume that the domain address will be “ ‘trademark’.com”....
A Web surfer’s second option when he does not know the domain name is to utilize an Internet search engine, such as Yahoo, Altavista, or Lycos.

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Bluebook (online)
115 F. Supp. 2d 772, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12857, 2000 WL 1246431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paccar-inc-v-telescan-technologies-llc-mied-2000.