Sunroofs and Free Speech


The Trademark Blog: CrownPontiacNissan.com – Free speech domain name case:

This decision is somewhat in contrast to those such as the Jews for Jesus, Planned Parenthood and Peta.org decisions, in which use of the per se version of a trademark tends to be actionable.  However, as Thomas Ballock has correctly pointed out to me, in Jews for Jesus and Planned Parenthood, the courts strained to find some form of commercial activity on the part of defendant, usually focusing on defendant’s own agenda.  Here, Ballock’s actions in venting his dispute was seen as non-commercial. 

Andrew Raff @andrewraff