Internet Trademark Case Summaries

Orion Bancorp, Inc. v. Orion Residential Finance, LLC

2008 WL 816794 (M.D. Fla. March 25, 2008)

Plaintiff Orion Bancorp, Inc. (“Orion Bank”) provided banking and other financial services since 1977 and advertised nationally using the federally registered trademarks ORION BANCORP, ORION BANK, and ORION (with design) since 2002. Defendant Orion Residential Finance, LLC (“Orion Residential”) provided financial and real estate services using the ORION mark, including on the web at “www.orionresidentialfinance.com.” Prior to trial, the parties reached a settlement and Orion Residential agreed to a permanent injunction. The court enjoined Orion Residential, among other things, from: (1) using any of Orion Bank’s trademarks or any other confusingly similar terms, (2) purchasing any search engine keywords containing the ORION mark or any confusingly similar mark and, if purchasing keywords in the future, Orion Residential had to activate ORION as a “negative” keyword (i.e., a “matching option that allows an advertiser to prevent its advertisement from appearing when the specific terms are part of a … user’s Internet search or search string”).