Related Issues: Intellectual Property
Visa v. JSL Corporation
In October 2002, credit card giant Visa convinced a Las Vegas federal court to prevent a small business from using the term "evisa" and the domain "evisa.com" for its website offering travel, foreign language, and other multilingual applications and services. The court ruled that JSL Corp.s website, run by Joe Orr from his apartment, "diluted" Visa's trademark, even though the site uses the word "visa" in its ordinary dictionary definition, not in relation to credit card services.
The case is now on appeal before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
At issue: Trademark law must not block ordinary language.
EFF's role: With Tom Moore and Bradley Booke, co-counsel for Defendant/Appellant.
Documents
U.S. District Court, Nevada
- February 12, 2003 Court order[PDF, 262.05 KB]
- November 21, 2002 Court order[PDF, 5.26 MB]
Ninth Circuit Appeal
- December 22, 2003 Non-published Memorandum Disposition from the Ninth Circuit[PDF, 182.80 KB]
- November 26, 2003 Appellant's Additional Authorities[PDF, 57.58 KB]
- July 28, 2003 Order Granting Stay of District Court Order[PDF, 116.20 KB]
- July 2, 2003 Reply Brief of Appellant[PDF, 199.91 KB]
- June 18, 2003 Brief of Appellee Visa International[PDF, 7.12 MB]
- April 21, 2003 Opening brief of Appellant JSL[PDF, 251.76 KB]
- April 14, 2003 JSL reply on motion for stay pending appeal[PDF, 25.75 KB]
- April 3, 2003 Visa opposition to JSL's motion to stay pending appeal[PDF, 2.43 MB]
- March 20, 2003 JSL's motion for stay pending appeal[PDF, 119.13 KB]
Press Releases
- November 21, 2002 "Visa" Torn From Dictionary by Credit Card Company
