Free e-mail firm Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) said this week that a federal court had awarded a default judgment and a permanent injunction against three unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail marketers in a suit that Hotmail filed in January.
According to Hotmail, LCGM of Madison Heights, MI, and Palmer & Associates and Financial Research Group, San Diego, were found to have forged Hotmail's “hotmail.com” domain name into the return addresses of unsolicited commercial e-mail messages wrongfully identifying Hotmail as the originating service. According to Hotmail, the court found that the companies' activities violated trademark infringement laws and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Hotmail, Sunnyvale, CA, said Judge James Ware ordered LCGM to pay Hotmail $275,000. Hotmail said the judge entered a default judgment against Palmer & Associates for $55,000 and a $7,500 default judgment against Financial Research Group.
Hotmail said Ware also prohibited the companies from using the Hotmail mark, the Hotmail.com domain and Hotmail's systems for any purpose.
Hotmail is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft.
