Court Opinion

ID: 9491334
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:11:15.932291+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:40.490210
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in Judge Boggs’s well reasoned opinion, but I believe that there is a serious question regarding whether Data Concepts’ use of the dci.com domain name constituted use of a trademark in the first place. As a leading commentator recently observed, “The question is sometimes asked: ‘Is a domain name a trademark?’ The correct answer is: ‘A domain name can become a trademark if it is used as a trademark.’” 1 J. McCarthy, Trademarks and Unfair Competition § 7:17.1 (4th ed.1998). Courts and other commentators have generally recognized that an Internet domain name can be used for both trademark and non-trademark purposes. See, e.g., 2 Jerome Gilson & Jeffrey M. Samuels, Trademark Protection and Practice, §§ 5.11[3] & 5.11[5] (1997) (distinguishing the technical use of domain names from the trademark use of domain names to identify goods and services); Lockheed Martin Corp. v. Network Solutions, Inc., 985 F.Supp. 949, 956 (C.D.Cal.1997). When a domain name is used only to indicate an address on the Internet and not to identify the source of specific goods and services, the name is not functioning as a trademark. See Lockheed, 985 F.Supp. at 956; 1 McCarthy § 7:176.1, at 7-24.
Although Data Concepts appears to concede that its use of letters in the domain name constituted trade use of the mark in connection with the sale of its goods, it is not clear that this is the ease. The record is not well developed on how exactly it used the dci.com Internet address. It is undisputed that Data Concepts did not use the dci.com domain name to establish a “web site” to advertise and sell its services. At the very least, Data Concepts used the domain name as a means for sending and receiving e-mail. *628The only evidence m the record regarding the extent of Data Concepts’ use of the dci. com domain name is the affidavit the company’s CEO, Terry Woodson, which asserts generally that “DCI now conducts a significant portion of its business through the Internet using the Internet address ‘DCI.COM’. Last year, business generated through use of our Internet address resulted in revenues in excess of $80,000 for the company.” J.A. at 98-99. The affidavit also states that Data Concepts communicates with some of its clients solely through the Internet. Id.
Data Concepts’ vague assertion that it received customer inquiries through the address that resulted in revenue is not enough to establish that its use of dci.com domain name constituted “use” of the DCI trademark. For instance, there is no evidence in the record indicating whether Data Concepts disseminated advertisements of its services displaying the dci.com address or whether the company’s customers or employees simply passed the dci.com address along to potential customers in the same way someone might give out a telephone number. See 1 McCarthy § 7:17.1 (domain names, like telephone numbers, street addresses, and radio station call letters, which permit one to locate and communicate with a place or a person, do not, without more, function as trademarks). Thus, it is unclear whether Data Concepts used the dei.com domain name merely as a means of communication or whether the company used the name to identify its goods and services. Since resolution of this question could dispose of the case, I would instruct the District Court to consider this matter on remand.