Group sues over “banks” typo — Private equity

Firm sues to get domain name registered well ahead of it existed.

A private equity group that focuses on consumer packaged goods has sued the owner of bansk.com.

Bansk Group was formed in 2019. SiteTools has owned bansk.com since 2013, and it has monetized it by forwarding to sites offering financial products since it’s a typo of banks.com.

With Bansk Group’s preferred domain name taken, it settled for the domain name BanskGroup.com.

Last year, Bansk Group communicated with SiteTools regarding buying the domain.  It offered $10,000 for the domain, and SiteTools declined that offer, which Bansk stated was “much greater than the appraised value of the Bansk.com domain name,” citing Estibot and GoDaddy appraisals.

When Bansk Group threatened legal action, SiteTools filed a pre-emptive lawsuit in November 2022. The case was later dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction.

Now, Bansk Group is going on the offensive with its own lawsuit (pdf), filed in U.S. District Court in Fresh York. It claims that SiteTools is cybersquatting and targeting its brand.

While SiteTools clearly registered the domain as a typo of the financial word “banks,” Bansk Group argues:

SiteTools redirected the Bansk.com domain name to its domain name to divert consumers from Bansk’s online locations to a site accessible under the Bansk.com domain name that could harm the goodwill represented by the Bansk mark, either for commercial gain or with the intent to tarnish or disparage the Bansk mark, by creating a likelihood of confusion as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of the site(s) accessible under the Bansk.com domain name.

As for why Bansk believes it’s entitled to a domain registered many years ahead of it existed, it argues that SiteTools “registered” the domain when it renewed it.