Brookfield Communications v. West Coast Entertainment

This case is widely considered the birth of the initial interest confusion doctrine as applied to the internet. We will see how application of this case evolves. For example, are metatags important anymore? This case also includes a first introduction to fair use - the ability to use trademarked terms in a descriptive way. This will be revisited in other cases. Recall the basic facts: West Coast used moviebuff.com, though Brookfield had registered MOVIEBUFF (one word) as a trademark. Earlier in the opinion, the court determined that West Coast would be enjoined from using moviebuff.com. This section considers the use of "moviebuff" on the website in a way that brought search engines to West Coast's web site, rather than Brookfield's.