Website Links to Competing Products Could Cause Confusion

by Thomas Long, Legal Editor, CCH Trademark Law Guide

A manufacturer of baby and maternity-related products could proceed with trademark infringement claims against a retailer for displaying the manufacturer's "Leachco" trademark on the retailer's website alongside links to competing products, the federal district court in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania has decided. The retailer displayed "featured brand" pages on its website, including a page dedicated to the manufacturer's merchandise and showing the Leachco mark. On a section of that page labeled "Pregnancy Pillows," descriptive text contained hyperlinks that took users to pages containing non-Leachco products, including a pregnancy pillow made by the retailer that was a lower-priced competitor of a pillow produced by the manufacturer.

This use of the Leachco mark could cause initial interest confusion, in the court's view. The Leachco mark was relatively strong. The parties both sold their goods through overlapping trade channels --websites --to the same group of consumers. The parties' competing pregnancy pillows were extremely similar. Unless the goods were differentiated by brand name, it was unlikely that a consumer could identify the particular source of the products.

BabyAge, Inc., MD Pa., ¶61,375

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