Trademark infringement on the Internet
Supreme Court judgment 28 November 2019, HR-2019-2213-A, (case no. 19-087366SIV-HRET), civil case, appeal against judgment.
Video Communication Services AS (Counsel Magnus Hauge Greaker) v. Appear TV AS (Counsel Henrik Felix Reimers)
Justice: Webster, Matheson, Bull, Arntzen, Steinsvik
A company with telecommunication as its objective had registered the trademarks APPEAR TV and Appear. A different company with the same objective later launched a video conference service. This was operated on the website "appear.in", which was registered in India. It had been finally decided by the Court of Appeal that the use of the domain name involved infringement of the registered trademarks. The Supreme Court found, like the Court of Appeal, that the domain name could be demanded assigned under section 59 of the Trademarks Act. There was no basis for a restrictive interpretation of section 59 based on the territorial principle. A transfer of the domain name would promote the purpose of preventing trademark infringement in Norway. The individual proportionality assessment also suggested assignment. The appeal against the Court of Appeal's judgment was dismissed.