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2600.com wins dismissal in f**k- generalmotors.com lawsuit

A landmark triumph for Sophomoric humor

A suit brought by Ford Motor Company against 2600.com founder Eric Corley aka Emmanuel Goldstein for setting up the Web site fuckgeneralmotors.com to re-direct surfers to the Ford home page has been dismissed.

The decision came in two parts: denying Ford's request for an injunction, and a ruling that without grounds sufficient for injunctive relief, nothing remains of its case.

Originally Ford had accused Corley of three violations under the Federal Trademark Dilution Act (FTDA): trademark dilution, trademark infringement and unfair competition, and sought an injunction against fuckgeneralmotors.com until the matter could be decided before the bench.

However, "Ford has failed to allege facts sufficient to prevail on its dilution, infringement, and unfair competition claims. Thus faced with no chance of succeeding on the merits, Ford may not be granted injunctive relief," the court ruled.

Ford's allegations won't fly because, as the court notes, "to succeed on an infringement claim, a plaintiff must show that the defendant has used the mark in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising of any goods or services. An essentially identical showing of use in connection with any goods or services is required on an unfair competition claim."

The court decided that Corley is not using the Ford trademark for any commercial purpose, and therefore that there are no grounds for granting a preliminary injunction.

And of course if there's insufficient merit in Ford's claims to grant an injunction, there's hardly going to be enough to proceed at trial.

The court therefore dismissed the suit in a separate ruling issued the same day; and that, one hopes, will be that. ®

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