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Non-Tech : USAB - USABancShares.com -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jgilbert who wrote (1911)	8/23/1999 12:45:00 PM
From: Tom Borst	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2419

US Bancorp waited until several weeks ago to file this suit. US Bancorp, filed for an "emergency" hearing to seek a restraining order, since such orders usually require an extraordinary and immediate harm. USAB was served notice that a hearing would be held on the matter on August 16th, the day of the launch! US Bancorp indicated to the Federal Judge that they thought USAB was intentionally mimicking their name on USAB's site and in advertisements in order to benefit from their trademark. USAB was previously known as USABancShares, a fully trademarked name actually granted prior to certain of US Bancorp's identifications. USAB's change to USABanc.com reflected their Internet focus, not a focus on US Bancorp. The Judge determined that it was likely that a customer could confuse the two names online. US Bancorp used "Ask Jeeves" as an example of a search engine that could lead to confusing results. USAB relied upon a large number of searches on Yahoo, Excite, Lycos, Alta Vista and HotBot to indicate that such mix-ups were non-existent. In addition, a customer would have to use a "c" instead of a "k" to get to USAB - letters on the keyboard that are not close. Whatever the case, the Judge ordered that USAB immediately stop using both USABanc.com as an identification and USABanc.com as a URL. USAB explained - with no success - that doing so would shut down their site without notice to anyone. The shutdown was to be in place for several weeks pending trial.