CD Solutions, Inc. v. John Cleven Tooker, Commercial Printing Co. an CDS Networks, Inc.

Declaratory judgment action brought to resolve a dispute over the use of http://www.cds.com. Plaintiff, CD Solutions registered "cds.com" with Network Solutions, Inc., as a "domain name" on the Internet. After plaintiff began using the domain dame to conduct business on the Internet, defendants advised plaintiff of their trademark and requested that plaintiff transfer the name cds.com to defendants. Plaintiff filled suit seeking a declaratory judgment establishing its right to use "cds.com" in its business.

Unlike a patent or copyright, a trademark does not confer on its owner any rights. There is no prohibition against the use of trademarks or service marks as domain names. Only used that infringe or dilute an owner's trademark or service mark are prohibited.

Defendants business pretained to providing commercial document services. Defendant did not expand the scope of its mark to include software. Both parties did, however, market themselves through the Internet.

The court concluded that defendants could not expend their trademark rights to generic descriptions existing in everyday language and sustained plaintiff's motion for summary judgment.

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For more information about this case, see: 15 F.Supp.2d 986 (D.Or. 1998).