Cardservice International v. McGee

Citation

Cardservice Int'l, Inc. v. McGee, 950 F. Supp. 737, 42 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1850 (E.D. Va.) (full-text), aff’d, 129 F.3d 1258 (4th Cir. 1997).

Factual Background

The plaintiff, Cardservice International ("CSI"), owns a federal trademark registration for "cardservice". It sued the defendants for trademark infringement, unfair competition, misappropriation, and unjust enrichment (but not trademark dilution). After the defendants opened a new website at "wrm.com" in which they referred to Cardservice International and also registered the domain name "csi.com", stating that they intended to engage in "guerrilla warfare" against the plaintiff, the plaintiff filed a motion to show cause re: contempt.

Trial Court Proceedings

The court granted CSI a permanent injunction, awarded $3,655 in attorneys' fees and reserved other issues. Later, in a Final Order, the court awarded CSI an additional $59,591 in attorneys' fees, ordered the defendants to "relinquish all interests in the domain names 'cardservice.com' and 'csi.com'", and further ordered that the:

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Defendants, their agents, servants, employees, successors, assigns and others working in concert with Defendants, including but not limited to internet 'search engines', and anyone else with actual notice of this injunction, shall forthwith and as soon as possible cease all direct or indirect use of the words 'cardservice', 'card service', or any variation thereof, including but not limited to 'csi' or 'csimall', in the Defendants' internet identification, domain name, advertising, text, operation, or maintenance of any internet site, or in any communications over the internet in relation to business activities, or in the provision of any services through the internet.

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