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Lawsuit filed over 'Gaydar' ownership
Company claiming name is part of gay dating site accuses rival of using its trademark
By SEAN O'SULLIVAN, The News Journal
Posted Thursday, June 28, 2007
WILMINGTON -- So who owns "Gaydar"?
A federal lawsuit filed in Delaware aims to find out.
Gaydar, a pop-culture term that refers to the ability of one person to sense if another person is homosexual -- a gay radar -- dates to at least 1994 and an episode of the sitcom "Friends."
A British company -- Qsoft Consulting Limited, based in Twickenham, Middlesex -- is claiming it owns the name as part of its gay and lesbian dating Web sites and online digital radio service.
The company, founded in 1997, claims in the lawsuit filed last week to have registered Internet domain names with "gaydar" as far back as 1999 and registered GAYDAR as a trademark in the European Community in 2003.
In November, the lawsuit alleges, a rival company operated by Teddy Tong, called TDTong Ltd. in Princeton, N.J., and San Francisco, began using similar Internet domain names for rival gay and lesbian Web sites.
Tong and company managers could not be reached for comment.
The lawsuit -- which was filed in Delaware because Tong registered his Internet domain names through the Delaware corporation Estdomains Inc. -- claims Tong violated the Can Spam Act by sending "hundreds" of unsolicited messages to Qsoft's customers in their online chat rooms.
Many patent and trademark cases end up in Delaware's federal court, according to Associate Professor Stephen E. Henderson at the Widener University School of Law, "because the Delaware federal bench has more experience in these matters than most of its peers." Attorneys and corporations recognize that experience and the judges' willingness to tackle these sometimes complex cases, he said.
Attorneys for Qsoft asked the court to prevent Tong's company from using the term Gaydar on its Web sites or for commercial purposes and to stop them from sending unsolicited e-mails to any Internet user "that references in any way GAYDAR."
It also seeks damages for the violation of its trademark. A hearing for Qsoft's motion for immediate action by the court has been set for July 11.
Richard Balough, who specializes in trademark law, said Qsoft will have a tough time enforcing its trademark claim.
Balough and Henderson said a centerpiece of trademark law is to help prevent consumer confusion, but that cuts both ways if the company picks too generic a term. The court's test has been that the closer something is to a generic description of the product or service, the weaker the claim, said Balough, the associate director for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.
He said a company called Overhead Garage Door obtained a trademark on its name but lost in court when a competitor successfully challenged it. The court found that the name amounted to a general description of the product.
Source
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Company claiming name is part of gay dating site accuses rival of using its trademark
By SEAN O'SULLIVAN, The News Journal
Posted Thursday, June 28, 2007
WILMINGTON -- So who owns "Gaydar"?
A federal lawsuit filed in Delaware aims to find out.
Gaydar, a pop-culture term that refers to the ability of one person to sense if another person is homosexual -- a gay radar -- dates to at least 1994 and an episode of the sitcom "Friends."
A British company -- Qsoft Consulting Limited, based in Twickenham, Middlesex -- is claiming it owns the name as part of its gay and lesbian dating Web sites and online digital radio service.
The company, founded in 1997, claims in the lawsuit filed last week to have registered Internet domain names with "gaydar" as far back as 1999 and registered GAYDAR as a trademark in the European Community in 2003.
In November, the lawsuit alleges, a rival company operated by Teddy Tong, called TDTong Ltd. in Princeton, N.J., and San Francisco, began using similar Internet domain names for rival gay and lesbian Web sites.
Tong and company managers could not be reached for comment.
The lawsuit -- which was filed in Delaware because Tong registered his Internet domain names through the Delaware corporation Estdomains Inc. -- claims Tong violated the Can Spam Act by sending "hundreds" of unsolicited messages to Qsoft's customers in their online chat rooms.
Many patent and trademark cases end up in Delaware's federal court, according to Associate Professor Stephen E. Henderson at the Widener University School of Law, "because the Delaware federal bench has more experience in these matters than most of its peers." Attorneys and corporations recognize that experience and the judges' willingness to tackle these sometimes complex cases, he said.
Attorneys for Qsoft asked the court to prevent Tong's company from using the term Gaydar on its Web sites or for commercial purposes and to stop them from sending unsolicited e-mails to any Internet user "that references in any way GAYDAR."
It also seeks damages for the violation of its trademark. A hearing for Qsoft's motion for immediate action by the court has been set for July 11.
Richard Balough, who specializes in trademark law, said Qsoft will have a tough time enforcing its trademark claim.
Balough and Henderson said a centerpiece of trademark law is to help prevent consumer confusion, but that cuts both ways if the company picks too generic a term. The court's test has been that the closer something is to a generic description of the product or service, the weaker the claim, said Balough, the associate director for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.
He said a company called Overhead Garage Door obtained a trademark on its name but lost in court when a competitor successfully challenged it. The court found that the name amounted to a general description of the product.
Source
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