The Orange Bowl Committee, Inc. v. Front and Center Tickets, Inc/Front and Center Entertainment
World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center
Case No. D2004-0947 (2005)
Relevant factsFree
The Orange Bowl Committee (the committee) (plaintiff) trademarked "ORANGE BOWL" in 1995 after decades of use for its football game. Front and Center Tickets (defendant) registered orangebowltickets.net and orangebowl.net in 1999 to sell tickets not just to the Orange Bowl but to many other sporting and entertainment events. After the committee filed a WIPO complaint, Front and Center agreed to transfer orangebowl.net but not orangebowltickets.net.
IssueFree
Whether using a trademark within a domain name qualifies as nominative fair use when the domain also markets tickets to unrelated events that the mark does not describe.
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