Adware firm WhenU won an important victory when a federal judge dismissed a trademark infringement case brought against it by 1-800 Contacts, which had claimed that WhenU served pop-up ads from competitors to visitors of 1-800 Contacts' website, doing so was tantamount to trademark infringement, AdWeek reports. "The fact is, WhenU does not need 1-800's authorization to display a separate window containing an ad," Judge John Walker of the U.S. District Court in New York wrote in a 29-page ruling.
Moreover, according to the ruling, "as a matter of law, WhenU does not 'use' 1-800's trademarks within the meaning of [the U.S. trademark law] the Lanham Act when it includes 1-800's Web site address in an unpublished directory of terms that trigger delivery of WhenU's (ads) to computer users," CNET reports.
The WhenU case has been watched closely because of trademark infringement claims against Yahoo and Google, which use trademarks as search terms to trigger ads.
