"An Eleventh Circuit panel grilled lawyers for two battery makers butting heads in a trademark dispute over the purchase of Amazon.com keyword search terms over whether "battery tender" was generic or protected. Gregory A. Castanias of Jones Day, representing appellant NOCO Co., argued a Florida district court jury had erred in finding the company owed Deltona Transformer Corp. nearly $20 million because the search keyword term "battery tender" it purchased wasn't a protectable trademark and hadn't caused actual confusion."
"Gregory A. Castanias of Jones Day, representing appellant NOCO Co., argued a Florida district court jury had erred in finding the company owed Deltona Transformer Corp. nearly $20 million because the search keyword term "battery tender" it purchased wasn't a protectable trademark and hadn't caused actual confusion. Judge Kevin Christopher Newsom pushed back on the Castanias' argument that the term was generic and didn't qualify for any trademark ..."
An Eleventh Circuit panel considered whether the phrase "battery tender" is a generic term or a protectable trademark in a dispute between two battery makers over Amazon.com keyword purchases. NOCO Co. appealed a Florida jury verdict awarding Deltona Transformer Corp. nearly $20 million, arguing the jury erred because the purchased search term was not a trademark and produced no actual confusion. Counsel for NOCO argued the term was generic and therefore unprotectable. Judge Kevin Christopher Newsom questioned that position and pushed back on the genericity argument. The case centers on trademark protectability, consumer confusion, and liability tied to purchasing competitive keyword search terms.
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