Amazon Trademark Search Results Confusing?

Amazon Search Results Confusing?

A trial will go forward against Amazon.com Inc by a watchmaker, a federal appeals court has ruled.  The watchmaker contends that Amazon’s search results can cause confusion for potential customers.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has this week reversed a lower court ruling.  It stated that watchmaker Multi Time Machine Inc. (MTM) is entitled to a trial on the relevant allegations.

The confusion lies in the fact that although Amazon does not sell MTM watches, if a customer on Amazon types ‘MTM Special Ops’ (a brand of it’s watches) into it’s search facility, instead of informing the shopper that ‘no results could be found’ it instead displays ‘MTM Special Ops’ in the search field and below this lists similar watches offered by MTM's competitors.

MTM argues that this could cause customers to buy a similar watch from a competitor rather than searching on another site for its watches.

The 9th Circuit Court stated “a jury could find that Amazon has created a likelihood of confusion."