Amicus Brief

JSL Corp. v. Visa International Services Ass’n

Published: June 20, 2003

Court

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Our Position

Adding generic or otherwise nondistinctive elements to a mark (such as the prefix “e”) does not make it nonidentical to the senior mark, for either infringement or dilution purposes.

Outcome

The court held that the marks at issue were “effectively identical” and that the “e” prefix “does no more to distinguish the two marks than would the words “Corp.” or “Inc.” tacked onto the end.”

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