Adventists, Adventist.com Owner Square Off Over Church Trademark

The owner of adventist.com should be allowed to challenge the Seventh-Day Adventist Church’s trademark, the domain’s owner told a Federal Circuit panel that expressed skepticism of both sides’ arguments.

Philanthropist.com Inc.'s commercial interest, combined with the General Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists’ legal threats against the company, gave it the right to challenge the church’s “Adventist” trademark, the domain-seller argued Thursday at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. But GCCSDA argued that reversing a trademark tribunal’s ruling would “open the floodgates” for challenges by domain owners with no trademark-based interests in the challenged mark.

The case centers ...