How a Cali court ruling could force a complete rethink of search results

The extraordinary case of the online retailer, special ops watches, and John Belushi

The mystery of Eric

The bigger question, however, is whether consumers are actually confused by Amazon's approach.

Will they really think that the products shown are MTM's Special Ops watches? Or will they think: "Amazon doesn't have what I'm looking for, but these might be good"?

The court of appeals did not say there would be confusion, but in rejecting the district court's decision, it clearly implies that there might. We can expect this issue to be at the heart of the upcoming trial.

That said, the appeals court does trample on the evidence that MTM provided to argue that there is a level of confusion: a man named Eric.

The judgment notes: "MTM did not submit colorable evidence of actual confusion. MTM offered its president's testimony that he had knowledge of actual confusion. The district court found this testimony was too vague to constitute evidence."

Here's our favorite bit: "The president testified that someone he had met named Eric said in reference to Amazon's page, 'it's confusing.' Such testimony does not suffice to give rise to a genuine issue of fact, even were such hearsay admissible."

So there you have it, the future of online search may be dependent on how confused a man called Eric was while looking for a watch that is used by the US military's special forces.

But if you really want some irony, consider this: there is no evidence that US special forces actually use MTM's Special Ops products.

In fact, they can wear pretty much whatever they want, and typically that means a wide range of commercially available watches (G-Shock and Ironman are popular), rather than some fantasy idea of a specially made watch for elite troops.

That said, we did find pictures of one specially branded Navy Seals watch. It was a Luminox - the very brand that comes up highest on the disputed Amazon search. ®