—
Zon Tools, Inc., a Delaware based corporation, has filed suit against ZonTools.com for trademark infringement and unlawful cybersquatting on the ZonTools.com domain name. The February 8 complaint, issued case number 5:19-cv-00721 by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, details how the registrant of the domain name, ZonTools LLP ("Registrant") "deceptively posed as [a Zon Tools] customer in order to obtain confidential and proprietary information," and then registered, used, and tried to extort money for the ZonTools.com domain name in violation of the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.Zon Tools, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in 2017 and offers services at https://www.zon.tools that facilitate the management and automation of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns on Amazon.com. Since then, Zon Tools has used, promoted, and protected its distinctive trademark in interstate commerce, including by publishing specific prohibitions at its Zon.Tools website against the misuse of its mark, logo, and related assets by others.
Despite those facts, Zon Tools, Inc. alleges in its complaint, the Registrant in July of 2018 registered the ZonTools.com domain name in bad faith, after having first deceptively surveilled Zon Tools and its customers online; and that when those activities, which purportedly included joining private Facebook groups and "friending" a Zon Tools principal under false pretenses, revealed the potential for profit through cybersquatting, the Registrant registered the ZonTools.com domain when it became available.
The complaint further asserts that, after disrupting Zon Tools, Inc's thriving business by spreading lies intended to create confusion among its customers, the Registrant then tried to extort money from the former for the transfer of the domain name. As such, Zon Tools, Inc. claims that the Registrant has continued to negatively impact the reputation and goodwill of the Zon Tools brand by offering "black hat" services that violate Amazon's PPC advertising program rules and in other substantial ways.
"As the victims of a truly outrageous, calculated incident of cybersquatting and trademark infringement, we have filed suit to obtain transfer of the ZonTools.com domain name," said Zon Tools co-founder and CEO Stefano Starkel. "We have never sought anything ourselves but to build a solid, profitable business by offering services that deliver real value to those tasked with managing Sponsored Product campaigns on Amazon. To be intentionally targeted and attacked has been disheartening, to say the least. The actions of the cybersquatter as alleged in our complaint have not only harmed us, they have also exposed many honest Amazon sellers to the threat of having their accounts shut down. We're confident the court will see this as the clear case of illegal cybersquatting and trademark infringement that it is and grant us the relief we're entitled to."
More information is available at https://www.zon.tools/blog/cybersquatters/ in a post detailing the situation.
About Zon Tools, Inc.:
Making it easier than ever before to manage Amazon Sponsored Products campaigns, always-affordable Zon Tools delivers improved Pay Per Click conversion rates, increased Advertising revenue and lower ACoS for any Amazon Sellers.
Contact Info:
Name: Stefano Starkel
Email: Send Email
Organization: Zon Tools, Inc.
Address: 2035 Sunset Lake Road
Phone: 302 604 6421
Website: https://www.zon.tools
Release ID: 490438
Google
RSS