A French court has this week rejected an action raised in 1999
by the French financial company Transasia/Leonardo, which claimed
that its trade mark was diluted because search engine requests for
‘Leonardo’ predominantly brought up the web pages of the non-profit
arts and sciences group Association Leonardo. Transasia had argued
that Association Leonardo should pay it $1 million in damages.
The case concerns the issue of so-called “initial interest
confusion.” This is the split second confusion that occurs when
users believe they are being taken to a certain web page when
actually they are being taken to another page. This confusion
becomes more controversial when trade marks are involved.
The three judges wrote that “The activities and services
practised by the plaintiffs and the defendants are totally
different, even if both parties use a common support, which is the
internet.”
It appears that the case turned on the fact that there was no
bad faith on the part of Association Leonardo – it does not compete
with Transasia/Leonardo and did not appear to be trying to divert
internet traffic from the financial company. Further, the name
“Leonardo” produce many search engine results, unconnected with
either company.
