YPOnline.com owner for trademark infringement — YellowPages.com sues

Owner of YP.com claims site infringes its trademark and the YPOnline.com constitutes cybersquatting.

Online directory service YellowPages.com, which also owns YP.com, has sued YPOnline.com for alleged trademark infringement and cybersquatting.

In the suit filed in U.S. District Court (pdf), YellowPages.com states that the YPOnline.com site mimics the look of YellowPages.com:

For example, Defendant’s website mimics Plaintiff’s website’s placement of “YP” in the upper-left quadrant, search bars at the top of the page, and location of a central image surrounded by smaller images, stories, or news. Taken together, Defendants’ use of “YP” in connection with these features and other indicia such as the “walking fingers” design bear a strikingly similar resemblance to Plaintiff’s website www.yp.com and mobile applications

You can see the comparison submitted to the court in the graphic (above right).

YellowPages.com states its website and mobile app get over 50 million unique visitors per month. The firm annually generates billions of dollars in revenue under the YP Marks, it states.

The term “Yellow Pages” has differing trademark protection around the world, and that was a central issue in a dispute filed against Australian telco Telstra’s application to run the .yellowpages top level domain name. Telstra defended the objection and will soon be able to offer services at .yellowpages.

In this case, YellowPages.com is arguing that the YPOnline.com website violates trademarks for “YP” and mimics the look and feel of its site.