That this – under specifice circumstances – is allowed, is once again confirmed by the District Court of The Hague, Netherlands on August 17, 2022.
The Dutch plaintiff has the domain name www.elisabetta-franchi.nl and sells clothing of the Elisabetta Franchi brand on this website. However, the Italian company Betty Blue is the rightful owner of the Elisabetta Franchi trademark and of the domain names www.elisbettafranchi.com and www.elisabettafranchi.nl (i.e. without hyphen). The latter websitere contains an online store in which Betty Blue sells products bearing the Betty Blue trademarks.
Betty Blue opposed the use of its Dutch reseller using its own domain name. The court stated that there is no trademark infringement since there is no impression of a commercial connection with the trademark owner Betty Blue. Nor was there any trade name infringement: the domain name was not being used as the name under which the Dutch company is run. Nor was there any infringement of the Elisabetta Franchi trademark by the use in the domain name of webshop that legitimately sells Elisabetta Franchi clothing. As a reseller, if one complies with these guidelines, the reseller’s website may contain someone else’s trademark.
