Wooster Floral & Gifts loses lawsuit for website address
WOOSTER — Customers seeking flowers from Wooster Floral & Gifts will need to type the business' full name into the URL to reach the correct website.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision that Green Thumb Floral, another florist in Wooster, could retain the domain name "woosterfloral.com" as it did not constitute a "deceptive trade practice" as Wooster Floral & Gifts argued in a lawsuit initially filed in Wayne County Common Pleas Court in 2016.
"For Green Thumb's actions to constitute a deceptive trade practice, its use of the domain name must create a likelihood of customer confusion about 'the source, sponsorship, approval, or certification of goods or services,'" according to Justice R. Patrick DeWine, who wrote the court's majority opinion.