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Hearts On Fire Sues BlueNile
National Jeweler is reporting that Hearts On Fire has filed a lawsuit against online diamond retailer BlueNile.
HOF is claiming that Blue Nile sponsored Internet search links are diverting customers to Blue Nile, thus infringing on the Hearts on Fire trademark and creating unfair competition.
National Jeweler quotes the court papers according to which Hearts on Fire has asked the court to issue an injunction which would bar Blue Nile from using the Hearts on Fire trademark as well as requiring Blue Nile to cease its alleged infringement practices.
In addition, it is demanding what it terms "a judgment of three times its damages and Blue Nile's ill-gotten profits," in addition to legal fees.
Hearts on Fire claims that Blue Nile purchased the search term "Hearts on Fire" from the Webcrawler.com search engine which searches other search engines.
According to the claim, Blue Nile uses the term "Hearts on Fire" to trigger sponsored links to its website. Thus, when users at Webcrawler.com type in "Hearts on Fire," one of the top search results that appears is a link to Bluenile.com.
The lawsuit further claims that the link states, "Ideal Cut Diamonds at Blue Nile. Find Hearts on Fire diamonds at Forbes Favorite Online Jeweler. Sponsored by www.bluenile.com."
Hearts on Fire claims that when users visit Blue Nile's website and type in "Hearts on Fire" into the website's search engine, they are directed to web pages selling "diamond and jewelry containing diamonds, none of which are Hearts on Fire diamonds or jewelry." Blue Nile is not an authorized retailer of Hearts on Fire diamonds or jewelry.
Hearts on Fire believes that Blue Nile may also be using its trademark in other keywords, keyword tags, meta tags and sponsored links on the Internet with the aim of diverting consumers in search of Hearts on Fire diamond jewelry to the Blue Nile’s website.
Hearts on Fire, which trademarked its name in 1996, sells diamonds and jewelry via its website, Heartsonfire.com, and at authorized retailers worldwide, including some 600 in the United States.
This should be very interesting. Stay tuned.
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