Cybersquatting lawsuit filed against KnowMore.com
It will be interesting to “know more” regarding this lawsuit.
A Florida broadcast video firm has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against the owner of KnowMore.com claiming trademark infringement and cybersquatting.
NewsProNet, Inc. has a registered trademark for “Know More” for “Entertainment services in the nature of the production and distribution of recurring television news programs, notes and features in the field of consumer issues, health and medicine, family, money, weather and science. “, with a first use date of 1999.
But “Know More” is rather generic, and the history of the web site KnowMore.com doesn’t stand out as infringing.
KnowMore.com was recently a social media aggregator that appears to have shut down.
It’s also worth pointing out that in many parts of the world they say “know more” instead of “learn more”.
The only mention of “Know More” I can find on NewsProNet’s web site is a reference to “Know More TV”. (And that lacks any notice of it being a trademark.)
Yet as stated by NewsProNet “The KNOW MORE mark is an inherently distinctive trademark to both the public and trade in connection with licensed products and services”
The lawsuit states:
Upon information and belief, defendants have used the designation KNOWMORE.COM as both a trademark affixed to a product which it manufactures and
distributes in interstate commerce and as a tradename used in conjunction with its commerce-related Web site.
The lawsuit doesn’t contain any attachments backing up this statement. The site doesn’t right now resolve, nor have any active sites been captured on Archive.org or screenshots.com since 2010.
So, what do you think?
