Opinion ID: 767485
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Identical and Confusingly Similar

Text: 37 The next question is whether domain name sportys.com is identical or confusingly similar to the sporty's mark. 11 15 U.S.C. 1125(d)(1)(A)(ii)(I). As we noted above, apostrophes cannot be used in domain names. See supra note 2. As a result, the secondary domain name in this case (sportys) is indistinguishable from the Sportsman's trademark (sporty's). Cf. Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp., 174 F.3d 1036, 1055 (9th Cir. 1999) (observing that the differences between the mark MovieBuff and the domain name moviebuff.com are inconsequential in light of the fact that Web addresses are not caps-sensitive and that the '.com' top-level domain signifies the site's commercial nature). We therefore conclude that, although the domain name sportys.com is not precisely identical to the sporty's mark, it is certainly confusingly similar to the protected mark under 1125(d)(1)(A)(ii)(I). Cf. Wella Corp. v. Wella Graphics, Inc. 874 F. Supp. 54, 56 (E.D.N.Y. 1994) (finding the new mark Wello confusingly similar to the trademark Wella). 38