FC: Judge denies Manhattan Bagel a restraining order against critics

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

----- Forwarded message from Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com> -----

From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Subject: No New World Coffee Disparagement Site TRO
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 14:24:31 -0400

Last Friday in Union County (NJ) Superior Court in Elizabeth, the operator 
of www.NewWorldCoffeeFraud.com won a solo victory against three sets of 
lawyers when he convinced the judge not to issue a TRO against his 
corporate disparagement site.

New World Coffee a NJ-based coffee and bagel franchise company was 
represented by
PIPER MARBURY RUDNICK & WOLFE LLP (the Washington DC firm that represented 
AOL in its anti-spam litigation), RABINOWITZ, TRENK, LUBETKIN & TULLY (a NJ 
firm), as well as New World Coffee's General Counsel.

The company made a series of claims in seeking a TRO including breach of 
franchise agreement by franchisees who are supposedly  saying unkind things 
about it.  It is also claiming that the domain names newworldcoffefraud.com 
and newworldfraud.com are likely to confuse innocent surfers looking for 
coffee (dilution).  There was also and Anti-Cybersquatting Act claim.

The judge didn't seem too concerned about the contract claims but was 
initially inclined to block the defendant's use of domain names for 
dilution and cybersquatting. But once the defendant presented a whois list 
of the hundreds of domain names containing the words "new world" (New World 
Coffee does not control newworld.com, .org, or .net) she dismissed the 
cybersquatting argument.  Dilution was thrown out after the defendant 
argued that all of the cited cases involved domain names that were 
initially confusing versions of trademarks (jews-for-jesus.org, 
plannedparenthood.org, etc.)  The judge agreed that even the most casual 
viewer would not confuse newworldcoffeefraud.com with the trademark 
holder's site.

The underlying case is still active and plaintiffs are seeking early 
discovery to see if they can uncover the defendant's sources.  He is 
defending using the NJ shield law for journalists.

Any New Jersey lawyers interested in the case?

DCF

----
"Di-electrical materialism dooms the Ancien Regime, the Treaty of 
Westphalia, the Communist International, the whole shooting match"

----- End forwarded message -----



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