Switch Communications Group LLC, operator of a big data center in Las Vegas, sued a Canadian man on Wednesday in what it calls a trademark dispute.
Switch charged in the suit that Dorian Banks in Vancouver, British Columbia, infringed on Switch’s trademarks when Banks registered the switch.net Internet domain name last month.
Switch Communications Group said in the lawsuit it operates the “world’s most powerful data center and technology ecosystems” and has a website at switchnap.com.
Besides the trademark claim, the lawsuit also alleges that Banks violated the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act because Banks had a “bad faith intent to profit from registering, trafficking in or using a domain name or mark that is either identical or confusingly similar to a distinctive mark” or a famous mark.
Switch charged in the lawsuit that after registering the switch.net name on Oct. 15, Banks contacted the Las Vegas Switch company and offered to sell it the domain name for about $3,700.
“While plaintiff evaluated the offer to negotiate the purchase of the domain name, defendant threatened to sell the domain name to another entity if plaintiff did not hurry and open escrow to buy the domain name,” charged the lawsuit filed in federal court in Las Vegas by attorneys at the Las Vegas office of the law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP.
Switch in the suit asks the court for a restraining order requiring Banks to stop using Switch Communications’ names and trademarks and that the domain name registrar transfer the switch.net name to Switch Communications.
Banks, in an interview, denied the allegations of trademark infringement and cybersquatting.
read more: http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2011/nov/09/las-vegas-switch-data-center-trademark-dispute/
