Facts

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences sued GoDaddy.Com Inc. and GoDaddy.Com LLC concerning certain domain names registered by third parties that were allegedly "parked" in one of GoDaddy's "Parked Page Programs."

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
The Academy claimed that GoDaddy maintained a "Parked Pages Program." In it, GoDaddy "parked" 88 domain names that were identical or confusingly similar to its trademarks to the Oscar, Oscars, Oscar Night, Academy Award, and Academy Awards marks. The Academy contended that GoDaddy's conduct constituted a violation of the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. The Academy moved for summary judgment, seeking a determination that the 88 domain names are "identical and confusingly similar" to its marks.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
GoDaddy disagreed with the Academy's assertion, and claimed that discovery was still necessary before the issue of confusing similarity could be determined, including expert testimony related to the generic nature of the words Oscar, Academy, and Award when used in the context of the domain names.

Result

The court rejected GoDaddy's assertion that an expert was needed to determine whether the domain names were "confusingly similar" to the Academy's marks. In contrast, it agreed with the Academy that the 88 domain names all possessed a high degree of similarity to the Academy's marks, and granted the Academy's motion for partial summary judgment on the issue.

Other Information

Trial is currently scheduled for June 2, 2015.