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Case 2:10-cv-03738-AB-CW Document 757 Filed 09/10/15 Page 1 of 129 Page ID #:32346 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE Case No. CV 10-03738 AB (CWx) ARTS AND SCIENCES, a California [consolidated with Case No. CV 13- 12 nonprofit corporation, 08458-ABC (CW) 13 FINDINGS OF FACT AND Plaintiff, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW (Fed. R. 14 Civ. P. 52(a)(1)) v. 15 GODADDY.COM, INC., a Delaware 16 corporation; THE GODADDY GROUP 17 INC., a Delaware corporation; DOMAINS BY PROXY, INC., a 18 Delaware Corporation; GREENDOMAINMARKET.COM, an 19 unknown entity; BDS, an unknown entity; and XPDREAMTEAM LLC, a 20 California limitedDeadline.com liability corporation, 21 Defendants. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Case 2:10-cv-03738-AB-CW Document 757 Filed 09/10/15 Page 2 of 129 Page ID #:32347 1 Following the bench trial of the above-captioned matter from August 4-7, 2 2015, the Court makes the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law: 3 I. FINDINGS OF FACT 4 A. The Parties 5 1. GoDaddy.com, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of Arizona on 6 January 13, 1997. On December 5, 2011, GoDaddy.com, Inc. changed its corporate 7 form to become a limited liability company under the laws of Delaware. Consistent 8 with its change in corporate form, GoDaddy.com, Inc. changed its name to 9 GoDaddy.com, LLC (“GoDaddy”). [Stipulated Fact (“SF”) 10 (Dkt. No. 725, 10 FPTCO at Appendix A).] 11 2. GoDaddy is the largest domain name registrar in the world with 12 approximately 60 million domain names under management. 13 GoDaddy has registered more than 150 million domain names since becoming an 14 ICANN-accredited registrar in 2000, averaging over 25,000 domain registrations per 15 day. On average, GoDaddy registers a domain name every 0.7 seconds. [SF 11-14; 16 Trial Transcript (“TT”) at 256:25-257:8 (Hanyen); 346:16-20 (Nicks).] 17 3. In addition to registering domain names, GoDaddy helps individuals 18 and small businesses get online by hosting their websites as well as providing tools 19 to design, build, and manage their online presence. [TT at 259:15-22 (Hanyen); 20 345:1-7 (Nicks).]Deadline.com 21 4. GoDaddy serves 13 million customers around the world using 40,000 22 servers in data centers worldwide. On average, GoDaddy receives over 10 billion 23 domain name service inquiries each day. [TT at 259:23-25 (Hanyen); 346:12-15 24 (Nicks).] 25 5. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (“AMPAS”) is a 26 non-profit founded for the purpose of advancing the motion pictures arts and 27 sciences by promoting cultural, educational and technological achievements. [SF 28 1 Case 2:10-cv-03738-AB-CW Document 757 Filed 09/10/15 Page 3 of 129 Page ID #:32348 1 1.] 2 6. Among its activities to promote motion picture arts and sciences, 3 AMPAS organizes and presents an annual televised awards show, known as the 4 “Oscars” or the “Academy Awards.” [SF 3; see also SF 4-8.] The awards presented 5 at this ceremony are known as an “Academy Award” or an “Oscar.” [TT at 60:17- 6 61:12; 61:23-63:5 (Davis).] 7 7. AMPAS owns the following registered trademarks: OSCARNIGHT, 8 ACADEMY AWARD, OSCAR, OSCARS, and ACADEMY AWARDS (the 9 “AMPAS Marks” or “AMPAS’s Marks”). [SF 17.]1 10 8. Between 36.3 million and 43.7 million viewers watched the Academy 11 Awards ceremony from 2009 to 2014. [Joint Exhibit (“JTX”) 222-244.] It is the 12 most-watched non-sports television event of the year in the United States. [TT at 13 67:17-68:2 (Davis).] 14 9. However, these figures do not reflect the untold number of additional 15 Americans who do not watch the awards ceremony but are exposed to the marks 16 through the undisputed media saturation AMPAS’s marks receive. [See JTX 245.] 17 The ceremony is “an international press event” with thousands of news reporters 18 covering the event each year. [TT at 66:13-67:16.] The Academy Awards annual 19 ceremony receives extensive media coverage each year, including in the most 20 widely circulatedDeadline.com newspapers and magazines in the United States. [See JTX 222- 21 245.] 22 10. Because of the widespread interest in the annual awards ceremony, 23 AMPAS licenses its trademarks for “significant amounts of money, tens of millions, 24 25 1 The Court has taken “judicial notice that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (‘USPTO’) identifies AMPAS as the registered owner of the following marks: ACADEMY AWARD 26 (USPTO Reg. No. 2,245,965), ACADEMY AWARDS (USPTO Reg. Nos. 1,103,895; 1,880,473; 1,956,313), OSCAR (USPTO Reg. Nos. 1,096,990; 1,118,751; 1,996,585; 2,021,582), OSCARS 27 (USPTO Reg. No. 1,528,890), and OSCAR NIGHT (USPTO Reg. No. 2,029,445). [Dkt. 655, p. 2 n.3; see also SF 18-19] 28 2 Case 2:10-cv-03738-AB-CW Document 757 Filed 09/10/15 Page 4 of 129 Page ID #:32349 1 even hundreds of million dollar amounts.” [TT at 542:15-21 (Pampinella); see also 2 JTX 1, 3, and 4 (AMPAS’s broadcast and other licenses).] 3 11. Both “Oscar” and the “Academy Awards” have their own entries in the 4 Oxford English Dictionary, referring specifically to AMPAS’s annual awards 5 ceremony, and the Encyclopedia Britannica includes an entry for the “Academy 6 Awards” referring to AMPAS’s annual awards ceremony. [SF 22-23; JTX 248-50.] 7 12. AMPAS and GoDaddy are not competitors. [SF 16.] 8 B. The Nature of GoDaddy’s Registration Services and Parked Pages 9 13. GoDaddy provides low-cost domain name registration services, 10 typically allowing individuals to register domains for, on average, $10 to $12 per 11 domain name. [TT at 345:22-346:2 (Nicks).] 12 14. In order to facilitate such low-cost domain registration services, 13 GoDaddy primarily uses an automated process. Requiring GoDaddy to subject each 14 domain registration to a costly, manual legal review is not commercially practical 15 and would dramatically increase GoDaddy’s costs, which would in turn be passed 16 on to the consumer. [TT at 314:5–315:5 (Hanyen); 346:8–11 (Nicks).] 17 15. GoDaddy provides an automated registration process whereby domain 18 name registrants submit domain names for registration through GoDaddy’s online 19 “dashboard.” [TT at 260:20-261:17 (Hanyen).] 20 16. OnceDeadline.com a registrant selects their domain name, he/she is presented with a 21 series of decisions to make, such as how long to register the domain name, whether 22 to add privacy service, whether to build a website with GoDaddy’s assistance, 23 and/or the designation of the domain name server (“DNS”) to which the domain 24 name will route. [SF 58; TT at 261:18-269:16 (Hanyen).] 25 17. Designation of a DNS allows the Internet Protocol (IP) address 26 corresponding to the domain name to be located and accessed online. [SF 57; TT at 27 269:23-270:2 (Hanyen).] 28 3 Case 2:10-cv-03738-AB-CW Document 757 Filed 09/10/15 Page 5 of 129 Page ID #:32350 1 18. At all times relevant, registrants using GoDaddy’s registration service 2 could configure their DNS so that it routed to: 3 a. the registrant’s website; 4 b. an existing website associated with another domain name; 5 c. a one-page website created and hosted by GoDaddy; or 6 d. GoDaddy’s parked page servers. 7 [SF 56, 58, 59; TT at 269:9-19 (Hanyen).] 8 19. In the event a registrant does not select a DNS at the time of 9 registration, the DNS for GoDaddy’s parked page servers is designated by default 10 through GoDaddy’s automated processes. [SF 60; TT at 269:9-19 11 (Hanyen); 349:15-21 (Nicks).] 12 20. GoDaddy’s registration, routing, and parked page processes are 13 automated. [TT at 260:20-261:17, 270:18-271:10 (Hanyen).] 14 21. At a large scale, ensuring that every domain name is associated with a 15 DNS entry (even an entry directing the domain to one of GoDaddy’s Parked Pages 16 servers) is important because domain names that are not associated with a DNS 17 entry present a technological problem. When users navigate their web browsers to a 18 domain name that is not associated with a DNS entry, those unresolved “DNS 19 queries, which [are] looking for a number where there [is] no number, develop[] a 20 sort of churn inDeadline.com [GoDaddy’s] system.” While this modest slowing may not be 21 problematic at a smaller scale, GoDaddy processes more than 10 billion DNS 22 queries every day. Slowing GoDaddy’s systems can mean, for many people’s day- 23 to-day internet use, a slowing of the entire Internet. [Jones Deposition Transcript 24 (“DT”) 33:8-34:10; TT at 346:14-15 (Nicks).] 25 22. To solve this technological problem, GoDaddy began implementing a 26 Parked Pages Program shortly after it began operating as a domain registrar in 2000. 27 [Jones DT at 32:5-25.] 28 4 Case 2:10-cv-03738-AB-CW Document 757 Filed 09/10/15 Page 6 of 129 Page ID #:32351 1 23.