In this instance, Playboy claimed infringement without its trademark ever being displayed. The court stated two main reasons for rejecting Playboy s core argument that Excite was unlawfully using Playboy s trademark. In her opinion, Federal District Court Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler found that Playboy did not have a monopoly on the generic use of those words in English and, therefore, Excite had not made commercial use of Playboy s trademark. In addition, she ruled that there was no evidence that customers were confusing Playboy with the banner ad pornography sites. Similar to other media industries such as newspapers, television, and radio, the Internet is an industry supported by advertising.
Search engines sell the banner ads that pop up on the screen above the search results.
These ads are often related to the key words so to connect industry related products with targeted customers. Another important policy implication is that a victory for Playboy would have led to more intrusive lawyering on the Internet. Each banner ad sale would have to be cleared by lawyers to determine if the ad would infringe upon a company s trademark thus hindering business online. However, it appears for the moment that the practice of selling banner ads related to key words can continue freely, though Playboy is appealing. This issue is also still in debate because there are other cases pending regarding the issue that trademark holders should not have to pay to keep their own name.