I do not like the giants getting their way, but I have to admit, that is BS.
Indeed... from the decision:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/85AEE84897725D758825738A005C180E/$file/0556794.pdf?openelement
Tran testified that she developed the idea in “late 1998 or
early 1999 . . . to sell perfume from [her] parents’ company
on the internet . . .” Tran first sold perfume on eBay’s web
site. She used “five or six different user names in order to
trade on eBay,” two of which, Beautiful Perfumes and Classy
Perfumes, were web sites owned by Tran for the sale of perfume.
She continued to sell perfume on eBay until October,
2004, when Tran decided that she no longer wanted to use
eBay, because of eBay’s auction approach.
The “target customer for Perfumebay is anyone who has
access to the internet and purchases fragrances and cosmetics
. . .” Tran chose the name for the web site while she was still
selling perfume on eBay. According to Tran, she “did not
have any intention of copying eBay or trying to confuse customers
to come to Perfumebay’s web site because of eBay.”
Tran selected the first part of the name, “perfume,” as a
description of her products. She added the term “bay” because
she “envisioned a bay filled with ships importing perfumes
from all parts of the world and this bay would be the place
where perfume lovers could go to locate the selection of fragrances
. . .”
However, “there was never an image of a bay
filled with ships on [her] web site.” There were not ships on
the web site, and Tran “never explained on [her] web site at
any time that the name Perfumebay was intended to suggest
a bay into which products are brought by ship from abroad
. . .” Her web site developers “never created any kind of
graphical design for the Perfumebay web site that incorporated
a bay filled with ships . . .”
Tran acknowledged that “the Perfumebay web site has,
from time to time, displayed the Perfumebay name as one
word with a capital B . . .” Additionally, “Perfumebay sometimes
refers to itself [as] Perfume
ay, capitalizing the letters
P and B in one word . . .” The sign-up documentation for
affiliates “spells the Perfumeay name in one word with the
P and the B capitalized . . .”
[...]
Prior to the lawsuit, Tran learned through her customer service
personnel that “people were calling Perfumebay asking
if it was associated with eBay . . .”
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You are starting a business. You can call that business anything under the sun, out of an infinitude of possibilities. You are an eBay merchant. You "just happen" to have an independent inspiration to take your product name and stick "Bay" on the end of it.
It may be just me, but it doesn't strike me as some sort of cosmic coincidence.
