TRADEMARK ISSUES AND UNFAIR COMPETITION IN WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS

摘要

Trademarks can appear on a Web site in several different ways. For example, trademarks make up domain names or links and are used as metatags embedded in a Web site. Trademarks also appear in banner advertisements, frames, and content for Web sites. As a result, there has been an explosion of litigation, especially with regard to domain names, and courts are struggling to apply traditional trademark law and unfair competition law to these new uses of trademarks. Additionally, the overall "look and feel" of a Web site may be protected under trade dress law. Further, there are special considerations that must be considered when utilizing a person's identity as part of the Web site's content. In this article, we discuss these various trademark and unfair competition issues and how they can be addressed in Web site development agreements.