Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp.
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
174 F.3d 1036 (1999)
Brookfield Communications, Inc. (Brookfield) (plaintiff) created and trademarked a searchable entertainment-database program called MovieBuff starting in 1993. When Brookfield tried to register moviebuff.com in 1996, it discovered West Coast Entertainment Corporation (West Coast) (defendant) had already registered that domain, intending to launch a similar searchable database; West Coast had used the term "Movie Buff" in its business since at least 1988 and owned the registered mark "The Movie Buff's Movie Store" since 1991. Brookfield sued for an injunction against West Coast's use of moviebuff.com; the trial court denied the injunction, and Brookfield appealed.
Whether, under trademark law, a likelihood of confusion exists when the similarity of two marks is likely to confuse consumers about the source of the products.