Capital One accuses credit score site of violating TM
Financial institution Capital One has accused Texas-based Capital 1 Finance Consultants of violating its rights in the “widely recognised and famous” ‘Capital One’ trademark.
Capital 1, which offers credit-score, loan, and insurance services, has diluted the distinctive value of the ‘Capital One’ mark and committed cybersquatting, according to a claim filed at the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Friday, June 28.
Capital One, which is a Fortune 500 company trading on the New York Stock Exchange, has rights in the ‘Capital One’ mark dating back to 1994, said the suit.
Its earliest registered ‘Capital One’ trademark (US number 1,992,626) covers financial services and was registered in 1996.
“Capital One has spent billions of dollars over the years, and spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually, advertising, marketing, and promoting its Capital One-branded services through a variety of national media, including television, radio, Internet, direct mail, and print advertisements,” said the claim.
Between 2008 and 2017, the financial institution spent more than $12.7 billion advertising and promoting the Capital One name and mark, including more than $2.2 billion in 2018 alone.
Texas-based Capital 1 began using the Capital 1 Consultants name in mid-2017, Capital One alleged.
In January this year, the Fortune 500 company sent a letter to Capital 1, demanding that it promptly cease use of the ‘Capital 1’ name and mark, transfer the domain name and withdraw its corporate registration or amend it to something that doesn’t include Capital One (or anything similar).
After receiving no response, Capital One sent a follow-up letter in February. According to the suit, Capital 1 responded, “refuting Capital One’s claims and refusing to comply with its demands”.
The suit also claimed that Capital 1 had relaunched www.capital1consultants.com under the name, but this website is now inactive.
In June 2019, Capital 1 began forwarding their domain name to the new website http://bestficoscore.com/index.html, an active website that still features the Capital 1 marks, said Capital One.
The financial institution is seeking a finding of infringement, injunctive relief, cancellation of Capital 1’s corporate registration, an order requiring the destruction of all infringing products and a transfer of any infringing domain names.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
Today's top stories:
SCOTUS to clarify rules on awarding TM profits; defence ‘preclusion’
US-Chinese trade talks to resume
