Supreme Court Backs Trademark Rights in Booking.com Victory

Greg Stohr, Bloomberg News

The logo for Booking Holdings Inc. is displayed on a laptop computer in an arranged photograph taken in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Sunday, May 10, 2020. In a matter of months, the coronavirus reset the clock on a decades-long aviation boom that's been one of the great cultural and economic phenomena of the postwar world. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court said businesses such as Booking.com can get federal trademark protection for website names that center on a commonly used word.

The 8-1 ruling means that Booking.com, owned by Booking Holdings Inc., is in line to be put on a government registry that provides nationwide benefits.

Booking pared its decline after the news, and the shares were down 0.6% at 10:07 a.m. in New York.

Federal registration gives trademark owners protections on top of the rights they already have under state law. Registration can confer exclusive rights in parts of the country where no one was already using the name or image, help owners win lawsuits, and put would-be competitors on notice that a trademark is legally protected.

(Updates with share price in third paragraph)