TCPIP Holding Co., Inc. v. Haar Communications Inc‪.‬

The defendants appealed from a preliminary injunction imposed on them by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Richard Conway Casey, District Judge), barring them from using 81 registered internet domain names, on a finding that these names would be likely to dilute and infringe the plaintiffs trademark and service mark. The Court of Appeals (Leval, J.) holds: (1) insofar as the injunction was based on the Federal Trademark Anti-Dilution Act, it is vacated because plaintiff failed to show that its mark, "The Childrens Place," for stores selling childrens merchandise, had either sufficient inherent distinctiveness or sufficient fame to qualify for the protection of the Act; and (2) insofar as the injunction was based on infringement under the Lanham Act, it is affirmed in part and reversed in part. Certain of the defendants domain names are so nearly identical to plaintiffs mark that their use in a related field of commerce will surely cause confusion. On the other hand, considering the inherently weak, descriptive nature of the plaintiffs mark, some of the defendants marks are not sufficiently similar to cause likelihood of confusion or give rise to liability.