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NETBULA LLC Filed Suit Against Distinct Corporation For Trademark Infringement & Other Wrongful Acts
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Added: 05/17/2004
Type: Summary
Viewed: 720 time(s)
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NETBULA LLC Filed Suit Against Distinct Corporation For Trademark Infringement & Other Wrongful Acts
Netbula LLC, a software company specialized in RPC development and Internet tools, announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Distinct Corporation (Distinct). The suit, filed in the District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Distinct Corporation has carried out acts infringing Netbula’s trademark and trade name, with the intention to trade on Netbula’s goodwill and harm Netbula’s business. Netbula’s suit seeks remedies for the competitive and economic harm caused by Distinct’s acts.
Netbula is a global leader in RPC development tools, its flagship products include the PowerRPC cross platform client/server development toolkit, and ONC RPC SDK for Windows 98/NT/2000/ME/XP and Java. Netbula’s customers include many well known US and international companies.
In its complaint, Netbula alleges that Distinct has engaged in infringement and unfair conduct. Distinct’s acts include 1) embedding the NETBULA and PowerRPC trademarks and trade name into Distinct’s web page’s hidden HTML keyword meta tag sections 2) purchasing Netbula’s trademark and trade name as advertising key words from at least one Internet search engine. By these acts, Distinct is able to get Internet search engines to display Distinct’s web links and advertisements when potential customers are in fact looking for information about Netbula and Netbula’s products. Netbula contends that Distinct’s acts constitute trademark and trade name infringement and violate other federal and state laws. Netbula’s suit seeks an injunction and treble damages and punitive damages.
“As a competitor of Netbula in many areas, Distinct’s acts directly harm our business to benefit their business,” a Netbula spokesperson said. “In the past, we advised Distinct not to engage in any anti-competitive actions, we also made clear to Distinct that we will not tolerate any unlawful activity that’s aimed at damaging our intellectual property. Distinct’s acts are extensive and lasted for an extended period; the only way to remedy the situation is by law.” The spokesperson further added, “Netbula is a company which highly values integrity; we build our business and our brand on quality, functionality, innovation and value. We welcome healthy competition, and will vigorously defend our trademarks and brand name.”
The lead attorney representing Netbula in this case is Neil A. Smith, a partner with Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin in San Francisco. Mr. Smith, a specialist in trademark infringement on the Internet, said that “The law is clear that a competitor cannot use Netbula’s name and trademark to attract customers looking for Netbula to the competitor’s website.”"We're about solving real-world business problems with well-executed technology. We don't burden our clients with labor-intensive solutions. We deliver intuitive, easy to use interfaces that better close the deal and better monitor staff, customer activity and order processing. Make no mistake about it, it's about winning - not how you play the game. This is business. Winning is everything," said Whittemore.
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More information about the suit is posted on Netbula's web site at http://netbula.com.
For more information about the suit, please contact Neil A. Smith at 415/434-1600. Related website: http://netbula.com
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