Ticketmaster contended Microsoft was unfairly benefiting from using Ticketmaster's trade name without permission or paying royalties. The case is ongoing. The juxtaposition of the second Website inside a frame appearing on the first implies a relationship between the two when none exists. Such a juxtaposition also can prompt allegations of trade name disparagement. And frames allow the initial Website to display its ads prominently, while ads surrounding the framed Website shrink or disappear from view.
Case outcomes so far are mixed.
But a federal court in Georgia recently overturned a state law against unauthorized use of trademarked or copyrighted names as links. 43 U.S.P.Q.2d 1356, held that the Georgia law against use of a trademark for hyperlinking impermissibly limited the constitutional right to free speech. Pamela Lawton Wilson was a legal affairs reporter in San Diego from 1989 to 1993. She is now an associate at the civil firm of Sullivan Wertz McDade and Wallace.