The owner of the trade-mark CHEAP TICKETS has struck out in Canadian Federal Court in a decision handed down on March 2, 2007. This is the second blow, coming after the owner’s loss in a 2003 domain name arbitration decision.  

In Emall.ca Inc. v. Cheap Tickets and Travel Inc. (2007 FC 243), the court dealt with a challenge brought by Emall that the trade-mark CHEAP TICKETS, owned by Cheap Tickets and Travel Inc., was too descriptive or generic to function as a valid trade-mark.  Trade-mark law insists that a trade-mark must be distinctive of the products or services of the trade-mark owner.  Where the trade-mark is descriptive of the products or services themselves or is so generic that it fails to distinguish the owner’s products or services, it can’t function as a trade-mark (just like SHREDDED WHEAT can’t be used as a trade-mark for shredded wheat cereal).  The court agreed with Emall’s challenge and concluded that the trade-marks should never have been registered in the first place.  The registered trade-marks were ordered struck from the register.

In 2003, Cheap Tickets and Travel Inc. launched an unsuccessful CDRP challenge to Emall’s registration of the cheaptickets.ca domain name.  Emall’s lawyers defended, claiming that the trade-mark was generic and that the complaint constituted an attempt to hijack the domain name.  In the arbitration decision, the panel agreed with Emall and dismissed the complaint since the domain name was registered before the Complainant had any rights to the CHEAP TICKETS trade-mark. 

 

Calgary – 14:35 MST