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The court order, issued Friday afternoon in the U.S. District Court of Los Angeles, is a victory for search engine GoTo.com, which filed the lawsuit in February. The injunction is also a major setback for Disney, which has been trying to turn its 43 percent stake in Infoseek--the core of the Go Network portal--into a significant rival to market leader Yahoo.
Go Network has thus far remained in the shadows of its competitors. The portal has stumbled since it was launched in January, and it remains the fifth-most-visited Web site, according to Media Metrix.
GoTo.com alleged that the Go Network logo would confuse consumers. Both logos depict a green circle on a square yellow background with white lettering.
"Since we are confident that our logo does not impinge on that of any other, we are very disappointed in the ruling," Disney spokesman John Dreyer told Reuters. "We are moving quickly to obtain a stay of the order and an appellate review."
The court order, which goes into effect tomorrow, bans Disney from using its Go Network logo during the trial, which is not expected to begin until the second half of next year. The pre-trial begins in March.
"We are thrilled with this ruling," Jeffrey Brewer, GoTo.com's chief executive, said in a statement. "It helps us to eliminate the confusion created by the similarity of Disney's logo to our own."
The timing is bad for Disney. In September, the entertainment giant suffered a public relations nightmare when Infoseek senior vice president Patrick Naughton was arrested by the FBI on charges of trying to solicit sex from a 13-year-old girl.
On Wednesday, Infoseek shareholders will vote on whether to merge with Disney. Disney plans to create a separate division called Go.com and has publicly stated its plans to take the division public as a tracking stock that encompasses all its Internet holdings.
Go.com will oversee the Go Network portal as well as Disney's myriad Web sites, which include Disney Online, ESPN.com, ABCNews.com and Family.com.
Reuters contributed to this report.
