Direct marketing firm Marketry of Washington, Inc., Bellevue, WA, has filed a lawsuit against Marketry Inc. in Illinois, claiming that the similarity in names, and business type, has caused confusion and probable injury to its reputation.
The suit, filed in April in the U.S. District court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, alleges that the use of the name by Marketry-Illinois, “constitutes an effort to pass off its goods and services as those of Marketry-Washington” and is in violation of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
An executive reached at Marketry-Washington declined comment on the case, and attorneys for Marketry-Illinois were unavailable at deadline.
The suit requests that Marketry-Illinois stop using the Marketry mark, pay for damages and attorney’s fees and cancel the marketry.net domain name or transfer all rights to Marketry-Washington.
Marketry-Illinois is a marketing and promotion service that offers direct mail, telemarketing, advertising, database marketing and customer profiling services.
According to the complaint, Marketry-Washington has used the name and mark Marketry since at least January 1986 and has owned the domain name marketry.com since October 1995. In February the firm filed an application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for registration of its Marketry mark.
Marketry-Illinois has used the domain name marketry.net since October 1998, the complaint continued. The firm was incorporated as Voice America in 1985 and in December 1997 began doing business as Marketry Inc, the documents continued.
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