Lycos Wins Advertising Dispute

[January 15, 1999] Lycos Inc. has won a
trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Labrador Software over the search
directory’s recent ad campaign.

In early November, Laborador sued Lycos for using a labrador retriver in an
advertising campaign. Labrador alleged that Lycos was aware of its name and
logo before it introduced the television, print and radio ad campaign.

Labrador makes the E-Retriever software program that allows users to find a
Web site by typing key words into an Internet browser, instead of a
complete URL.

Labrador had asked a federal judge to force Lycos to stop using the dog as
its logo and to award it unspecfied damages for trademark violation and
deceptive trade practices.

After the Lycos campaign began, Labrador claimed it received calls from
such customers as Lucent Technologies and prospective clients, including
Compaq Computer Corp., who said they were confused by Lycos’ use of the logo.