Visa Defeated In Internet Trademark Case

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

01 January 2004

In a widely-watched case, foreign travel web-site Evisa.com won its appeal at the Ninth Circuit over whether its domain name diluted Visa's trademark for credit cards. "Visa is a generic word used throughout the world to describe foreign travel and was used long before it became a brand name for credit cards," said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "The Court of Appeals wisely rejected Visa's attempt to monpolize use of the word 'visa' in a domain name without further proof of harm to Visa's business." EFF represented Evisa.com in its appeal along with Thomas Moore III of Tomlinson Zisko LLP.

In October, 2002, Visa had convinced a Las Vegas federal court to prevent JSL Corporation (a one-man small business offering travel and foreign language services) from using the term "evisa" and the domain "evisa.com" for its website. The court ruled that JSL's website, run by Joe Orr from his apartment, "diluted" Visa's trademark, even though the site uses the word "visa" in its ordinary dictionary definition, not in relation to credit card services.

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