Lawsuits Against Competing Sites
In addition to defending itself from lawsuits, on several occasions Ripoff Report has also acted as a plaintiff and has sued competitors who were accused of stealing content from Ripoff Report in an effort to increase their own popularity by expanding the amount of material on their competing sites.
On May 26, 2011, Ripoff Report filed a lawsuit in federal court in Arizona against the operator of a competing website located at www.scaminformer.com. The lawsuit against ScamInformer seeks copyright infringement damages of "not less than $63,000,000", plus injunctive and other relief.
On May 10, 2011, Ripoff Report filed a similar action for copyright infringement relating to a "copycat" website located at www.reportaripoff.co.
In December 2008, Ripoff Report filed a complaint in federal court in Arizona against a competitor, ComplaintsBoard.com, accusing it of violating U.S. copyright law by stealing "large quantities of copyrighted works from the Rip-off Report site without … permission or consent." The lawsuit further alleged that ComplaintsBoard violated U.S. trademark law by using Ripoff Report's name and trademarks to "mislead consumers" resulting in "substantial actual confusion among consumers" as to the relationship between the two websites.
ComplaintsBoard failed to respond to the lawsuit and in October 2009, a default judgmentwas entered in favor of Ripoff Report which awarded damages, attorney's fees, and costs of more than $60,000.00. The judgment also included a permanent injunction prohibiting ComplaintsBoard from using Ripoff Report's name or content in the future. Ripoff Report was later awarded attorney's fees and other costs against ComplaintsBoard.
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Famous quotes containing the word competing:
“The idealist’s programme of political or economic reform may be impracticable, absurd, demonstrably ridiculous; but it can never be successfully opposed merely by pointing out that this is the case. A negative opposition cannot be wholly effectual: there must be a competing idealism; something must be offered that is not only less objectionable but more desirable.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)