J.C. Whitney Files Suit to Secure Web Moniker

Auto parts cataloger J.C. Whitney & Co. has filed a lawsuit against Carparts.com, accusing it of driving visitors to its Web site by misappropriating the J.C. Whitney trade name. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois, Eastern Division, alleges that Carparts.com used such URLs as jcwhitneya.car-carparts.com and jcwhitney.car-carparts.com. Chicago-based J.C. Whitney seeks a permanent injunction against Carparts.com, the purging of URLs incorporating the J.C. Whitney name, and damages. J.C. Whitney introduced its own Web site, www.jcwhitney.com, in 1997.