A US court has ruled a man cannot call his online English language tutoring business "eVisa" because it dilutes the trademark of card giant Visa, according to Reuters.
The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals backed Visa against James Orr, upholding a previous judgement in a nine-year-old lawsuit.
Orr says the name of his one-man business, which he ran from his New York apartment, derived from an English-language tutoring service he previously ran in Japan called Eikaiwa Visa. Eikaiwa means conversation in Japanese.
In his opinion for a three-judge panel, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski says Visa enjoys a "strong trademark" which is not weakened by the use of the word "visa" in ordinary conversation, says Reuters.
The judge decided that by placing an eVisa mark on his Web site next to a book that looked like a passport, Orr blurred the meaning of "visa".
Court says "eVisa" violates Visa trademark - Reuters