CD Solutions, Inc. received a final judgment on May 19, 1998 from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon that its domain name "cds.com" does not infringe U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,006,249 for "CDS." CD Solutions, Inc. is a business that specialized in the manufacture and sale of compact discs (also called CDs) according to Jerald R. Warner, president of the firm. CD Solutions, Inc. uses the domain name "cds.com" to market what it does, which is to manufacture and sell CDs on the Internet. In fact, according to Mr. Warner, "the domain name ‘cds.com’ has been integral in attracting people to our website by describing our CD-related products and services."

In early 1997, the owner of Trademark Registration No. 2,006,249 accused CD Solutions, Inc. of causing confusion with its trademark for "CDS". U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,006,249 for "CDS" is limited to desktop publishing services. An informal complaint was filed by the owner of the U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,006,249 in an attempt to block CD Solutions, Inc.’s use of the domain name "cds.com" on the Internet. Convinced there could be no confusion between the parties’ services, CD Solutions, Inc. fought the attempt to block its domain name use on the Internet and filed a complaint with the federal court to obtain a declaration that the domain name "cds.com" for CD products and services was not covered by Trademark Registration No. 2,006,249.

D. Scott Hemingwayof Jones, Day, Reavis, &Poguein Dallas, Texas, represented CD Solutions, Inc. and argued before the District of Oregon that Trademark Registration No. 2,006,249 should not be used to preclude the everyday use of the term CDs for compact discs. In response to this argument, the District of Oregon held that there could be no trademark infringement from the use of "cds.com" to market CD products and services, and the Court went on to state that the attempt to cover CD-related products and services with Trademark Registration No. 2,006,249 "renders the mark invalid as being generic". "From the very beginning of this dispute, we firmly believed that no one should be allowed to preclude the everyday use of a term like CDs for compact discs," said Mr. Hemingway, "and the District of Oregon agreed with us 100%."

For more information check out The Domain Name Handbook, or contact:

Jerry Warner at 800-860-CDROM (2376)

D. Scott Hemingwaynow working at The Law Offices of D. Scott Hemingway