Web Street Securities Files Trademark Suit
The growing list of online trademark lawsuits got a new entry this month–one with a couple of new wrinkles.
Web Street Securities, an online securities brokerage based in Deerfield, IL, filed suit against WebStNews.Com., Inc., Santa Rosa, CA, alleging that the latter has misappropriated the Web Street trademark with its domain name.
In an unusual departure in online trademark cases, the complaint also names Interactive Ideas, the Internet service provider for WebStNews.Com, as a defendant. And, it takes a swipe at National Solutions, Inc., exclusive registrant of domain names.
The complaint alleges that WebStNews.Com (http://www.webstnews.com) started using the disputed name last summer on a site devoted to providing investment information and promoting the stock of its advertisers.
Consumers may be confused by the similarity of names and by the fact that both sites are dedicated to investments, the papers continue.
Web Street Securities, an exclusive online brokerage, has been promoting the name since 1996, spending several million dollars in the past year alone, according to the complaint on file with The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern division. The firm operates through a Web site, (http://www.webstreetsecurities.com).
WebStNews.Com, also uses a street-sign design mark similar to that used by Web Street Securities, the latter firm alleges.
Unclear at deadline was the relationship between the two defendants. The complaint states that Interactive Ideas has an ownership interest in WebStNews.Com. However, Neal Weisman, president of Interactive Ideas, would not confirm that in a telephone interview.
“We’re only the ISP,” he said of the case.
Executives of WebStNews were unavailable for comment at deadline.
Web Street Securities has filed service-mark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for several variations of the name, according to the complaint.
WebStNews.Com obtained domain name registrations for the “webstnews.com” and “webstnews.net” domain names from Network Solutions last July, the papers state. However, an attorney for Web Street Securities argue that National Solutions, which is not a defendant, should have not issued the registration, nor many others that it has processed.
“My client believes there have been many instances in which has issued registrations that infringed on valid trademarks,” said Kristin J. Achterhof, a partner in the intellectual property department of Katten Muchin & Zavis, a Chicago law firm.
