Re: Legal Audits of Web Site

I wrote:
>
> We have not yet seen, as far as I know, any attempt by authorities
> in one country to enjoin activities associated with a web site
> resident on a server in another country.

Bob Stock replied:
>
> The court, speaking of an Italian web site:
>
> "As ordered in the Opinion, Tattilo must either shut down PLAYMEN
> Lite completely or prohibit United States users from accessing the
> site in the future."
>
> Check Playboy Enterprises v. Chuckleberry Publishing, 1996 U.S.
> Dist. LEXIS 9865 (S.D.N.Y. 1996).

True enough. The issue in Chuckleberry, however, was not whether the US court had the jurisdiction to shut down a web site resident on an Italian server. The court's jurisdiction over Tattilo had already been established years before Tattilo had a web site. At that time, the court issued an injunction against his distribution in the US of printed matter that infringed the PLAYBOY trademark by using the term PLAYMEN. The only issue in the recent Chuckleberry case, as I understand it, was whether that injunction covered Tattilo's use of the infringing name on a US-accessible web site, which of course did not exist at the time the original injunction was issued, and was thus not expressly mentioned in the injunction. The court held that the language of the injunction was sufficient to apply to Tattilo's use of the same infringing term in a newer medium. As far as I know, Tattilo did not argue the jurisdiction issue.

I don't deny, however, that Mr. Stock's point is a good one; and the Chuckleberry case may well create a misleading precedent.

Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> Received on Mon Feb 03 1997 - 01:57:36 GMT