Is Liability Just a Click Away?

Originally published in Internet Law & Business, March 2001

The ubiquitous act of linking one website to another has spawned many lawsuits claiming trademark infringement and dilution. Liability in these cases depends on who's doing the linking, where the linking leads the public, the content the linked site provides, and most important, the likelihood of consumer confusion or dilution.

Defendant-to-plaintiff linking comes in two varieties. Either the defendant "deep links" to a page inside plaintiff’s website and bypasses the plaintiff’s home page, or the defendant "frames" part of plaintiff's content and obscures advertisements or information the plaintiff might want to display.