On March 19, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. (pictured below), signed a bill into law that bans some forms of key word advertising. The Trademark Protection Act, SB 236, establishes a new type of mark called an Electronic Registration Mark. Once a mark is electronically registered, the statute prohibits use of the Electronic Registration Mark to trigger advertising for a business, goods, or services of the same class as those represented by the Electronic Registration Mark.
In particular, the bill makes a person liable to the registrant of an Electronic Registration Mark if that person, without the registrant’s consent, “uses an electronic registration mark to cause the delivery or display of an advertisement for a business, goods, or a service: (i) of the same class … other than the business, goods, or service of the registrant of the electronic registration mark, or (ii) if that advertisement is likely to cause confusion between the business, goods, or service of the registrant of the electronic registration mark and the business, goods, or service advertised.”
Is this regulation constitutional? Is it prudent? Will it spawn a new class of cybersquatters? Stay tuned. This statute is sure to be dissected and debated in the weeks to come.
Michael Atkins