Lens.com, Inc. v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc.

Lens.com, Inc. v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc.
Lens.com, Inc. v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc.
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Full case name	Lens.com, Inc., Appellant, v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc., Appellee.
Decided	August 3 2012
Citation(s)	686 F.3d 1376
Case history
Prior history	92,049,925 (USPTO (2011))
Holding
	A trademark granted in connection with "computer software" can be considered abandoned if the registered holder merely uses the computer software in a manner that is "incidental" to its retail sales of other goods. Computer software used in that manner may, as a determination of fact, not be considered a "good" that is "sold or transported in commerce" for the purposes of 15 U.S.C. § 1127.
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Pauline Newman, Richard Linn, Kimberly Ann Moore
Case opinions
Majority	Linn, joined by a unanimous court
Laws applied
	15 U.S.C. § 1064, 15 U.S.C. § 1127 (Lanham Act)

Lens.com, Inc. v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc., 686 F.3d 1376 (Fed. Cir. 2012), is a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit which ruled that when software merely acts as a "conduit" for providing services over the internet, and does not have an independent value per se, it does not constitute a "good" being "sold or transported in commerce" for the purposes of establishing whether or not a trademark for "computer software" has been "abandoned" under 15 U.S.C. § 1064 and 15 U.S.C. § 1127 (the relevant sections of the federal Lanham Act.)^[1]

The case was important because it clarified the Federal Circuit's view of the "use in commerce" requirement for trademarks when a non-traditional use of the trademark was employed. This had implications for trademark holders who held "computer software"-related intellectual property and sold goods over the internet. This also affected trademark holders who used their marks in non-traditional manners,^[2] or those whose marks were inappropriately described in the trademark filing.^[3]

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