Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp.

Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp.
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Full case name	Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp.
Argued	March 10 1999
Decided	April 22 1999
Citations	174 F.3d 1036; 50 U.S.P.Q.2d 1545; 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2899; 1999 Daily Journal D.A.R. 3779
Case history
Prior history	Brookfield Communications Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp., No. 98-cv-09074-CM-AJW (C.D. Cal. Nov. 30, 1998) (denying ex parte motion for temporary restraining order, denying ex parte motion for order to show cause regarding preliminary injunction).
Subsequent history	Brookfield Communications Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp., 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23251 (C.D. Cal. Jun. 10, 1999) (ruling on summary judgment motions).
Holding
Brookfield has a valid, protectable trademark in "MovieBuff" and West Coast's use of the domain name moviebuff.com would cause a likelihood of confusion. West Coast can not use the term "MovieBuff" in the HTML metatags of its web site. Although there is no likelihood of confusion, the use of "MovieBuff" in the metatags could cause an initial interest confusion.
Court membership
Judges sitting	William Cameron Canby, Jr., Diarmuid Fionntain O'Scannlain, Kim McLane Wardlaw
Case opinions
Majority	Diarmuid Fionntain O'Scannlain
Laws applied
15 U.S.C. § 1114,§ 1125(a), (Lanham Act)

The case Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corporation, 174 F.3d 1036 (9th Cir. 1999), heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, established that trademark infringement could occur through the use of trademarked terms in the HTML metatags of web pages when initial interest confusion was likely to result.^[1]