SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - eBay won a trademark infringement case in the Ninth Circuit against an online perfume retailer with a similar name. The online auction giant held its nose at Perfumebay.com, claiming its site diverted online shoppers searching for the terms "perfume eBay" away from eBay.
The name confused would-be customers, leeched off eBay's name and goodwill, and diluted its trademark, eBay claimed.
Perfumebay president Jacquelyn Tran said she picked the name because she "envisioned a bay filled with ships importing perfumes from all parts of the world and this bay would be the place where perfume lovers could go to locate the selection of fragrances." But there were never any images of ships or a bay on her Web site, the court noted.
It ordered Perfumebay to stop using the infringing name, but said it could keep using the phrase "perfume bay" as two words. See ruling in Perfumebay.com v. eBay.com.
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