Court Opinion

ID: 9496663
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:31:55.380697+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:42.659491
License: Public Domain

BERZON, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in Judge Nelson’s careful opinion in this case, as it is fully consistent with the applicable precedents. I write separately, however, to express concern that one of those precedents was wrongly decided and may one day, if not now, need to be reconsidered en banc.
I am struck by how analytically similar keyed advertisements are to the metatags found infringing in Brookfield Communications v. West Coast Entertainment Corp., 174 F.3d 1036 (9th Cir.1999). In Brookfield, the court held that the defendant could not use the trademarked term “moviebuff’ as one of its metatags. Meta-tags are part of the HTML code of a web page, and therefore are invisible to internet users. Search engines use these meta-tags to pull out websites applicable to search terms. See also Promatek Indus., Ltd. v. Equitrac Corp., 300 F.3d 808, 812-13 (7th Cir.2002) (adopting the Brookfield holding).
Specifically, Brookfield held that the use of the trademarked terms in metatags violated the Lanham Act because it caused “initial interest confusion.” Brookfield, 174 F.3d at 1062-66. The court explained that even though “there is no source confusion in the sense that consumers know[who] they are patronizing, ... there is nevertheless initial interest confusion in the sense that, by using ‘moviebuff.com’ or ‘MovieBuff to divert people looking for ‘MovieBuff to its website, [the defendant] improperly benefits from the goodwill that [the plaintiff] developed in its mark.” Id. at 1062.
As applied to this case, Brookfield might suggest that there could be a Lanham Act violation even the banner advertisements were clearly labeled, either by the advertiser or by the search engine. I do not believe that to be so. So read, the meta-tag holding in Brookfield would expand the reach of initial interest confusion from situations in which a party is initially confused to situations in which a party is never confused. I do not think it is reasonable to find initial interest confusion when a consumer is never confused as to source or affiliation, but instead knows, or should know, from the outset that a product or web link is not related to that of the trademark holder because the list pro*1035duced by the search engine so informs him.
There is a big difference between hijacking a customer to another website by making the customer think he or she is visiting the trademark holder’s website (even if only briefly), which is what may be happening in this case when the banner advertisements are not labeled, and just distracting a potential customer with another choice, when it is clear that it is a choice. True, when the search engine list generated by the search for the trademark ensconced in a metatag comes up, an internet user might choose to visit westcoastvi-deo.com, the defendant’s website in Brook-field, instead of the plaintiffs movie-buff.com website, but such choices do not constitute trademark infringement off the internet, and I cannot understand why they should on the internet.
For example, consider the following scenario: I walk into Macy’s and ask for the Calvin Klein section and am directed upstairs to the second floor. Once I get to the second floor, on my way to the Calvin Klein section, I notice a more prominently displayed line of Charter Club clothes, Macy’s own brand, designed to appeal to the same people attracted by the style of Calvin Klein’s latest line of clothes. Let’s say I get diverted from my goal of reaching the Calvin Klein section, the Charter Club stuff looks good enough to me, and I purchase some Charter Club shirts instead. Has Charter Club or Macy’s infringed Calvin Klein’s trademark, simply by having another product more prominently displayed before one reaches the Klein line? Certainly not. See Gregory Shea, Note, Trademarks and Keytuord Banner Advertising, 75 S. CAL. L. REV. 529, 554 (2002) (comparing keyed banner advertisements to a customer entering a supermarket, requesting Tylenol, and then being directed to the pain reliever section which includes generic Acetaminophen, along with other generic and name-brand pain relievers); Julie A. Rajzer, Comment, Misunderstanding the Internet: How Courts are Overprotecting Trademarks Used in Metatags, 2001 L. REV. MICH. ST. U.C.L. 427, 462-63 (2001) (highlighting the brick-and-mortar world in which Kellogg’s Raisin Bran and Post Raisin Bran both appear next to one another on the same aisle).
Similarly, suppose a customer walks into a bookstore and asks for Playboy magazine and is then directed to the adult magazine section, where he or she sees Penthouse or Hustler up front on the rack while Playboy is buried in back. One would not say that Penthouse or Hustler had violated Playboy’s trademark. This conclusion holds true even if Hustler paid the store owner to put its magazines in front of Playboy’s.
One can- test these analogies with an online example: If I went to Macy’s website and did a search for a Calvin Klein shirt, would Macy’s violate Calvin Klein’s trademark if it responded (as does Amazon.com, for example) with the requested shirt and pictures of other shirts I might like to consider as well? I very much doubt it.
Accordingly, I simply cannot understand the broad principle set forth in Brookfield. Even the main analogy given in Brookfield belies its conclusion. The Court gives an example of Blockbuster misdirecting customers from a competing video store, West Coast Video, by putting up a highway billboard sign giving directions to Blockbuster but telling customers that a West Coast Video store is located there. Brookfield, 174 F.3d at 1064. Even though customers who arrive at the Blockbuster realize that it is not West Coast Video, they were initially misled and confused. Id.
But there was no similar misdirection in Brookfield, nor would there be similar misdirection in this case were the banner ads *1036labeled or otherwise identified. The Brookfield, defendant’s website was described by the court as being accurately listed as westcoastvideo.com in the applicable search results. Consumers were free to choose the official moviebuff.com website and were not hijacked or misdirected elsewhere. I note that the billboard analogy has been widely criticized as inapplicable to the internet situation, given both the fact that customers were not misdirected and the minimal inconvenience in directing one’s web browser back to the original list of search results. See J. THOMAS McCarthy, McCarthy on trademarks & UNFAIR COMPETITION § 25:69 (4th ed.2003); Shea, supra at 552.
The degree to which this questionable aspect of Brookfield affects this case is not clear to me. Our opinion limits the present holding to situations in which the banner advertisements are not labeled or identified. See ante at 1029-1030. Whether, on remand, the case will remain so limited is questionable. PEI may seek to reach labeled advertisements as well.
There will be time enough to address the continuing vitality of Brookfield should the labeled advertisement issue arise later. I wanted to flag the issue, however, as another case based on the metatag aspect of Brookfield was decided recently, Horphag Research Ltd. v. Pellegrini, 337 F.3d 1036 (9th Cir.2003), so the issue is a recurring one. Should the question arise again, in this case or some other, this court needs to consider whether we want to continue to apply an insupportable rule.