An Israeli wall tiles company has contracted with an American company to market its products in the United States. At some point, after the American company manager visited the plant in Vietnam, it was discovered that the American company not only acquired a domain with the Israeli company brand, but also sold other products it manufactures in the same Vietnamese manufacturing plant under the same domain but with another name.
The Court held that the American company and its manager must compensate the Israeli company. A sample (design on a three-dimensional object) does not enjoy copyright protection if it is manufactured in an industrial manner and therefore the court rejected the claim for the violation of the sample. However, use of a competitor's domain (even if the trade name is exchanged) constitutes a commercial wrong and copyright infringement. The American company committed a commercial wrong and infringed copyright by using a domain with the Israeli company's name while selling competing products with the same photographs that appeared in the catalog, the same tiles and even the catalog numbers. The manager of the infringing company is personally responsible to the Israeli company, since he was the one actually committing the infringing activity.