Utah’s Trademark Protection Act: Prohibiting the Use of Trademarks to Return Competitors’ Ads on the Internet
Utah’s Trademark Protection Act, which was signed into law in March, would allow individuals or business to register an “electronic registration mark.” If a mark were registered, it would be illegal to sell and/or deliver Internet advertising associated with that mark for goods or services of the same type or where the advertisement would likely cause confusion between the registrant of the mark and the advertiser. The statute would allow challenges to search engines which sell advertising to be displayed when users perform a search on a competitor’s mark. Both the search engine and the advertiser would face liability under the Utah law. The Utah Division of Corporations' web site indicates that the registration database is still under development.
Originally slated for April 30, 2007, implementation of Utah’s law was delayed after Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and other Internet companies met with state officials. See Utah legislators back off keyword search bill, May 14, 2007. Reports of a June 30, 2007 implementation date have appeared in the press, along with conjecture among bloggers that the law will be repealed. Such conjecture is based both on the influence of the Internet companies and on the opinion by Utah’s Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel that the law is likely unconstitutional due to conflict with the Commerce Clause. See Legislative Review Note ("Because of the potential impact on interstate commerce from the state's regulation of electronic registration mark use on Internet search engines, this legislation has a high probability of being held to be unconstitutional.")
As noted above, the webpage for Utah’s Division of Corporations & Commercial Code indicates that the database to support the Trademark Protection Act is under development. The site also notes that additional information will be provided when the database is complete.
(Thanks to Elaine Meckenstock for her assistance on this post).
Originally slated for April 30, 2007, implementation of Utah’s law was delayed after Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and other Internet companies met with state officials. See Utah legislators back off keyword search bill, May 14, 2007. Reports of a June 30, 2007 implementation date have appeared in the press, along with conjecture among bloggers that the law will be repealed. Such conjecture is based both on the influence of the Internet companies and on the opinion by Utah’s Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel that the law is likely unconstitutional due to conflict with the Commerce Clause. See Legislative Review Note ("Because of the potential impact on interstate commerce from the state's regulation of electronic registration mark use on Internet search engines, this legislation has a high probability of being held to be unconstitutional.")
As noted above, the webpage for Utah’s Division of Corporations & Commercial Code indicates that the database to support the Trademark Protection Act is under development. The site also notes that additional information will be provided when the database is complete.
(Thanks to Elaine Meckenstock for her assistance on this post).
posted by at 6/22/2007 03:26:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home