Company files complaint against rival store but loses.

When you hear “Pet Meds”, what do you think about? The store 1-800-PetMeds.com or simply “pet medications”.

Pet meds is a simple descriptive term, shorthand for pet medications.

But online pet pharmacy PetMed Express, Inc., a.k.a. 1-800-PetMeds, says it owns the term “PetMeds” and is going after competitors that use the term in their domains.

Amazingly, the company was granted a trademark to “PetMeds” on the principal register in 2006. It’s granted under 2f, meaning there’s a claim of acquired distinctiveness. It’s been challenged, but the company still holds the mark.

And it’s using it in UDRP cases to try to take down competitor sites.

The latest challenge was against online pet pharmacy petmedsnmore.com. The company had sales in February of close to half a million dollars and employees over a dozen pharmacists and pharmacist technicians.

PetMed Express argued that PetMedsNMore.com registered the domain in bad faith to capitalize on PetMed Express’ name.

The panel ruled that the domain owner was merely using the domain in a descriptive sense, and that it may keep the domain name.

Another panel made a similar ruling in a previous case involving five domain names including petmedoutlet.com.

PetMed Express owns PetMeds.com, which it forwards to its main web site.

This is another reminder that branding around a generic term has its advantages but also its challenges.

 
Source from http://domainnamewire.com

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