America Online, Inc. v. LCGM, Inc.

America Online, Inc. filed a complaint that defendant sent large numbers of unauthorized and unsolicited bulk e-mail advertisements ("spam") to AOL's members. AOL's complaint contained seven counts: Count I (False Designation of Origin under the Lanham Act); Count II (Dilution of Interest in Service Marks under the Lanham Act); County III (Exceeding Authorized Access in Violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act); Count IV (Impairing Computer Facilities in Violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act); County V (Violations of the Virginia Computer Crimes Act); Count VI (Trespass to Chattels under the Common Law of Virginia); and County VII (Common Law Conspiracy to Commit Trespass to Chattels and Violate Federal and Virginia Statutes). AOL sought compensatory and punitive damages, attorney's fees, costs, and permanent injunctive relief.

LCGM, Inc. was a Michigan corporation which operated and transacted business on Internet domains offering pornographic web sites. Defendant sent approximately 300,000 e-mail messages a day at various internals from its Michigan offices. Defendants admitted sending unsolicited e-mail messages to 820,000 AOL members. Plaintiff alleged that defendant harvested, or collected, the e-mail addresses of AOL members in violation of AOL's Terms of Service. Plaintiff further alleged that defendants forged the domain information "aol.com" in the "from" line of e-mail messages set to AOL members. Plaintiff sent defendants two ceased and desist letters before filing suit. Plaintiff further alleged that defendants paid "site partners" to transmit unsolicited bulk e-mail on defendants' behalf and encouraged their site partners to advertise. AOL claimed that defendants' actions injured AOL by consuming capacity on AOL's computers, causing AOL to incur technical costs, impairing the functioning of AOL's e-mail system, forcing AOL to upgrade its computer network to process the e-mails in a timely manner, damaging AOL's goodwill with its members, and causing AOL to lose customers and revenue. Plaintiff asserted that between the months of December 1997 and April 1998, defendants' unsolicited bulk e-mail generated more than 450,000 consumer complaints by AOL members.

The Court granted summary judgment in favor of AOL on Counts 1 through VI and denied AOL's motion for summary judgment on Count VII.

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For more information about this case, see: 46 F.Supp. 444 (E.D.Va. 1999)