Dive Brief:
- A federal appeals court has ruled that a trademark lawsuit by Multi Time Machine, a high-end watchmaker, against Amazon should be allowed to continue.
- MTM does not sell its watches through Amazon, but when customers searched for the watches on the Amazon site, Amazon showed a list of MTM's competitors under the search field.
- MTM sued Amazon. On Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that MTM's lawsuit should be allowed to proceed.
Dive Insight:
The Amazon v. MTM lawsuit is not the usual situation in which a trademark owner sues its competitor for copying its trademark too closely. The outcome has the potential to bring up important questions. Those in favor of MTM's position argue that Amazon confuses its customers. Some suggest that Amazon should adopt a "No Coke, Pepsi" policy in which Amazon should clarify which products it offers and which it does not.Those against MTM's position argue that people accustomed to shopping online would not make that kind of mistake.
