In this verified complaint BNI Enterprises, Inc. (Upland, CA), Business Network International, Ltd. (Sudbury, MA) and Slam Dunk Business Enterprises, LLC (Attleboro, MA) brought suit against The Referral Zone, LLC (Rockland, MA), its owner and his related company for trademark and copyright infringement.
BNI is a global “business networking organization” with franchises in Mass. BNI has registered trademarks in BNI and variations thereof. It also has copyright registrations in certain business materials. BNI’s Norfolk, MA county franchise goes by the name REFERRAL ZONE and operates the domain name www.referral-zone.com.
The defendant’s owner was a member and Assistant Director of this BNA branch until 2008. In 2004 he registered www.bnima.com on behalf of BNI, listing his own company as registrant. According to the complaint, after leaving BNI he registered www.thereferralzone.com and founded The Referral Zone, LLC, which competes with BNI’s Norfolk county franchise. At various points he redirected traffic from www.bnima.com to his own website and refused to return the site to BNI. He applied for a trademark registration in THE REFERRAL ZONE and was granted one in July 2009. He also incorporated BNI’s copyrighted material in his new company’s materials.
If the complaint is accurate, the biggest problem I see with a preliminary injunction is delay. If this guy has been doing this dastardly stuff for so long, what took so long to haul him into court?
BNI Enterprises, Inc., et. al. v. The Referral Zone, LLC, 10-10466-RWZ (D. Mass. Mar. 17, 2010)
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