Was there ever any trademark infringement lawsuit between Hearts on Fire and Blue Nile?

Yes, Hearts on Fire did sue Blue Nile. It's actually quite a complicated story. The diamond wholesaler, Hearts on Fire, originally owned the Hearts on Fire Trademark and this trademark was federally registered. The company used its internet site to sell diamonds and refer its consumers to authorized resellers. Although the renowned online jewelry retailer Blue Nile, wasn't one of Hearts on Fire's authorized resellers, they did acquire the Hearts on Fire trademark as a keyword to be used in the search engine. Once a potential consumer typed Hearts on Fire in the search engine, it was to show ads linking him / her to Blue Nile's site. While a quantity of these sponsored advertisements included the Hearts on Fire trademark within the text, other ads didn't have this trademark at all. In addition, Hearts on Fire claimed that even when the words "Hearts on Fire" were searched on Bluenile.com the search engine provides a list of Blue Nile pages, where there were various arrangements of the words but never the exact phrase. Hence, Hearts on Fire filed a lawsuit against Blue Nile on the grounds of trademark infringement as well as unfair competition. Blue Nile claims that the fact that they purchased the Hearts on Fire keyword shows that the claims should be dismissed. On the other hand, Blue Nile didn't move to dismiss Hearts of Fire's claims about the sponsored advertisements.

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Ultimately, the trademark infringement claims against Blue Nile were not dismissed. The court ruled that Blue Nile's acquisition of the Hearts on Fire trademark as a keyword to be used in the search engines providing sponsored advertisements serves as a "use in commerce" according to the Lanham Act.

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