Question

Case 8.1: Hasbro, Inc. v. Internet Entertainment Group, Ltd.

FACTS: Hasbro, Inc., the maker of Candyland, a children’s board game, owns the Candyland trademark. The defendants, Brain Cartmell and the Internet Entertainment Group, Ltd., used candyland.com as a domain name for a sexually explicit internet site. Any person who performed an online search for “candyland” was directed to this adult website. Hasbro filed a trademark dilution claim in a federal court, seeking a permanent injunction to prevent the defendants from using the Candyland trademark.

a) If the court had ordered both parties to change their domains, what, if any, complications would this present?

b) Suppose that the site using candyland.com had not been sexually explicit but had sold candy. Would the result have been the same?

Answer 1

a) If the court orders parties to change their domains then it can solve the complication resulting from the usage of the same domain name. Whereas, Hasbro will have a complication because Candyland is their registered and trademark name which is used explicitly to direct customers to the product website. Complications for the other adult website must not arise because it is an adult site and it cannot use a registered trademark name.

b) Yes, the result will be the same because Candyland is a registered trademark of Hasbro and no company has the right to use the name to market their less known brand.

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