A recent South African court ruling dealing with one
company's use of another's trade mark on an aggregator
website has attracted some interest.
The case in question is Car Find (Pty) Ltd v Car Trader
(Pty) Ltd and Others (South Gauteng High Court, Judge van
Oosten, 12 February 2016). The facts were that Car Find, which is
involved in the used car trade industry, has registrations for the
trade mark CARFIND in class 35, covering advertising and business
services, and in class 38, for telecommunications services. Car
Find sued competitor Car Trader for using the CARFIND trade mark on
website autofuzion.co.za without authority. Car
Trader's site is an aggregator website that provides
information about car sales and is aimed at car dealers, who need a
subscription to use the site. The trade mark CARFIND pops up on the
website alongside the trade marks of other car retailers, like
Surf4cars and Auto Mart, which effectively allows subscribers
direct access to a number of
