Zippo Mfg. Co. v. Zippo Dot Co

Facts

P is a Pennsylvania corporation with its principal place of business in Bradford, Pennsylvania. P makes, among other things, well known 'Zippo' tobacco lighters. D is a California corporation with its principal place of business in Sunnyvale, California. D operates an Internet Web site and an Internet news service and has obtained the exclusive right to use the domain names 'zippo.com,' 'zippo.net' and 'zipponews.com' on the Internet. D's contacts with Pennsylvania have occurred almost exclusively over the Internet. D's offices, employees and Internet servers are located in California. D maintains no offices, employees or agents in Pennsylvania. D's advertising for its service to Pennsylvania residents involves posting information about its service on its Web page, which is accessible to Pennsylvania residents via the Internet. Defendant has approximately 140,000 paying subscribers worldwide. Approximately two percent (3,000) of those subscribers are Pennsylvania residents. These subscribers have contracted to receive P's service by visiting its Web site and filling out the application. D has entered into agreements with seven Internet access providers in Pennsylvania to permit their subscribers to access D's news service. Two of these providers are located in the Western District of Pennsylvania. The trademark claim is for D's use of the word 'Zippo' in the domain names it holds, in numerous locations in its Web site and in the heading of Internet newsgroup messages that have been posted by D subscribers. When an Internet user views or downloads a newsgroup message posted by a D subscriber, the word 'Zippo' appears in the 'Message-Id' and 'Organization' sections of the heading. he news message itself, containing text and/or pictures, follows. P points out that some of the messages contain adult oriented, sexually explicit subject matter.

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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