America Online, Inc. v. AT&T Corp.
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
243 F.3d 812 (2001)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
America Online, Inc. (plaintiff) owned three trademarks in connection with its Internet service: “Buddy List,” “You Have Mail,” and “IM.” AOL’s Buddy List was a subscriber’s list of contacts who also used the company’s real-time messaging service, “instant messaging,” or “IM.” AOL obtained a service mark registration for “Buddy List” from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). With its email service, AOL alerted subscribers that they had new mail by displaying the words “You Have Mail.” AT&T Corporation (defendant) was a competitor of AOL, and used the terms “Buddy List”, “You have Mail!”, and “I M Here.” in connection with its Internet service. AOL sued AT&T for trademark infringement. AT&T presented evidence that the phrase “You Have Mail” was used to denote the existence of new mail well before AOL even came into existence. AOL presented evidence that the public associates “You Have Mail” with AOL. The district court granted AT&T summary judgment on the ground that the service marks were generic. AOL appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Niemeyer, J.)
Dissent (Luttig, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 802,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
