A Florida court has ordered Orion Residential Finance to employ what Google calls 'negative keywords' to make sure that possible clients searching for housing finance can never confuse its offerings with those of Orion Bank, which sued to protect its trademark.
The US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, ruled in favour of Orion Bancorp Inc against Orion Residential Finance llc (ORF) and others, issuing an injunction which restrains ORF from purchasing or using any form of advertising including keywords or 'adwords' in internet advertising containing any mark incorporating the Bank's trademark, or any confusingly similar mark, and and requires ORF, when purchasing internet advertising using keywords, adwords or the like, to require the activation of the term 'Orion' as negative keywords or negative adwords in any internet advertising purchased or used".
Orion Bancorp took ORF to court over ORF's use of the word 'Orion' in relation to financial services and products, saying that it had had held a trade mark for it since 2002.
The judge said that ORF had been 'actively engaged in the business of offering to the consuming public financial and real estate related services utilizing the term ORION or various iterations thereof, including use in interstate commerce, on various signs, advertising, slogans, promotional material, a top level domain name at www.orionresidentialfinance.com and other matters containing the term “Orion”, all without Plaintiff’s authorization or consent'.
ORF did not contest the case, and had agreed to the issue of the injunction.
The judge noted that: 'by reason of Plaintiff’s long term and considerable expenditures and extensive advertising and promotion . . . . the public has come to recognize Plaintiff’s goods and services as emanating solely from Plaintiff. Plaintiff’s Marks are valid, enforceable, and owned exclusively by Plaintiff.'
Costs were awarded in cause.
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