Royal Tiger Publishing loses bid for preliminary injunction

In a case defended by Alvin Borromeo and Eric Willison (authors of this website), Plaintiff Royal Tiger Publishing dba C - The Columbus Magazine sought to enjoin Defendant, C-BUS, from developing, marketing, selling or using "C-BUS" and other trade dress, trade marks, or trade names that are allegedly confusingly similar to Plaintiff's ("C - The Columbus Magazine") in connection with the Defendant's arts and entertainment magazine.

The court ruled against Royal Tiger in its bid for a preliminary injunction. Some of the court's reasoning - "Plaintiff does not have a protectable trademark for the name C- BUS. One acquires the right to a trademark by appropriation and actual use. The use must be "deliberate and continuous, not sporadic, casual or transitory." Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. CarMax, Inc. (C.A.6 1999), 165 F.3d 1047, 1055. Plaintiff presented no evidence that it actually used the name C-BUS in the publication of its magazine. The mere fact that Plaintiff owned the URLs for INCBUS.COM, CBUSMAG.COM, and CBUSONLINE.COM does not grant it protection of those names of variations of them. There was no evidence that any of Plaintiff's readers or advertisers associated the C-BUS name with Plaintiffs magazine."

continue reading Magistrate's decision

read the entire court transcript of the preliminary injunction hearing