Perfumebay.com, Inc. v. eBay, Inc.

Jaquelyn Tran was the owner of the company Perfumebay.com, Inc. (Perfumebay) (plaintiff), which sold perfume on the internet through several websites, including perfumebay.com. On the websites, Tran used the marks perfumebay, PerfumeBay, and Perfume Bay. An unrelated company, eBay, Inc. (eBay) (defendant), believed that Perfumebay was infringing on eBay’s registered trademark of its name. Perfumebay sued eBay seeking a declaratory judgment as to whether Perfumebay’s various marks infringed on eBay’s mark. The evidence at a bench trial showed that eBay had a strong mark and its online marketplace brought buyers and sellers of various products together. Products on eBay could be sold through auctions or for fixed prices, and hard-to-find products were offered on the site. A significant volume of perfumes were sold on the fragrance section of eBay’s website. A dominant number of consumers reached eBay by using text searches on Google and Yahoo and clicking a sponsored link. Consumers who searched Google or Yahoo for “perfume” and “eBay” would receive results to both PerfumeBay and eBay.com. A witness for eBay testified that consumers conducting these searches could easily confuse PerfumeBay with eBay or think that PerfumeBay was eBay. Another eBay witness testified that he believed consumers thought that Perfumebay was sponsored by or affiliated with eBay even though Perfumebay was not in fact affiliated in any way with eBay. The court found that conjoined forms of “perfumebay” created a likelihood of confusion and enjoined Perfumebay from using the marks in conjoined form. The court also found that Perfume Bay, in nonconjoined form, did not create a likelihood of confusion. Both parties appealed.