Indiana Intellectual Property Law News
Indianapolis, IN – Trademark lawyers for ChaCha Search, Inc. of Carmel, Indiana filed a trademark infringement suit alleging HTC America, Inc. of Washington state, a subsidiary of the HTC Corporation of Taiwan. ChaCha Search alleges that the defendants infringed the ChaCha trademark. ChaCha Search owns the mark and design “ChaCha” registered with the US Trademark Office with registration numbers 3,217,653; 3,217,654 and 3,501,101 for the CHACHA mark.
ChaCha Search has developed a search engine system where mobile phone users call in to an operator who provides answers to the user questions. ChaCha Search has registered the ChaCha mark in relation to this search service. In the complaint trademark attorneys filed last week, ChaCha Search alleges that HTC plans to begin offering a similar search service as part of a smart phone and that HTC plans to use the name and mark ChaCha for the smart phone. According to Yahoo! News, HTC revealed plans to release the phone at the Mobile World Congress trade convention in February. ChaCha Search’s trademark attorneys made claims for trademark infringement under 15 U.S.C. § 1114(1), unfair competition under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a), trademark dilution under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c), and common law unfair competition. ChaCha Search is seeking an injunction and damages.
This case has been assigned to Judge William T. Lawrence and Magistrate Judge Mark J. Dinsmore in the Southern District of Indiana, and assigned case no. 1:11-cv-00262-WTL-MJD.
Practice Tip: Before a company launches a new product, the company can search the US Trademark Office‘s registered marks to determine if another party has already registered a trademark with the new product’s proposed name in connection with similar goods or services. Complaint – Chacha v. HTC America
Further information on this case is as follows:
Filed: February 22, 2011 as 1:2011cv00262 Updated: February 25, 2011 03:36:52
Plaintiff: CHACHA SEARCH, INC.
Defendants: HTC AMERICA, INC. and HTC CORPORATION
Presiding Judge: William T. Lawrence
Referring Judge: Mark J. Dinsmore
Cause Of Action: Trademark Infringement