Ford Motor Company v. 2600 Enterprises [1]

As an act of "cyber-art," defendants 2600 Enterprises and Eric Corley registered the domain name www.fuckgeneralmotors.com [2] and programmed the associated website so that it would automatically redirect to www.ford.com [3], Ford Motor Company's official website. Ford sued for trademark dilution, trademark infringement, and unfair competition under the Lanham Act. In its complaint, Ford claimed that the defendants' actions caused Ford to be "linked not only to the vulgar, strident criticism of a competitor, but also associated with the offensive, obscene word that is used in the domain name."

The federal district court in Michigan denied Ford's motion for a preliminary injunction, thus allowing 2600 and Corley to continue to link their website to Ford's. The court ruled, for purposes of the trademark dilution claim, that 2600 and Corley had not made a "commercial" use of the Ford trademark because it appeared only in the programming code that created the hyperlink to Ford's site. The court reasoned:

This court does not believe that Congress intended the FTDA to be used by trademark holders as a tool for eliminating Internet links that, in the trademark holder's subjective view, somehow disparage its trademark. Trademark law does not permit Plaintiff to enjoin persons from linking to its homepage simply because it does not like the domain name or other content of the linking webpage.

Based on similar reasoning, the court ruled that 2600 and Corley had not used Ford's mark "in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising of any goods or services," as required for the trademark infringement and unfair competition claims.

Ford initially appealed the decision, but later withdrew the appeal.