Consulting firm sues man for copyright and trademark infringement of Bain name.
Bain & Company, one of the world’s most prestigious management consulting firms and a former employer of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is taking a Colorado man to court over his use of the “Bain Consulting” name and the domain name BainConsultingGroup.com.
According to Bain (pdf), it became aware of Jim Woods’ registration of BainConsultingGroup.com in February. The domain was registered on January 2, 2012 according to whois records.
Bain says that Woods set up the site to trade on Bain & Company’s goodwill. It also alleges that he essentially copied and paraphrased content from Bain’s official web site. Bain also says that Woods lifted text off of other global consulting company web sites.
The consulting company sent Woods a cease & desist letter on March 1. On March 5, he allegedly responded:
Let’s see how the continuing negative publicity effects [sic] your business. We quite frankly would relish the publicity.
If however you wish to buy our rights to the name you may do so for $20,000. Otherwise go to hell.
Bain says that, just four minutes later, Woods emailed its in-house attorney and said that if he didn’t receive an apology he would initiate a “social media onslaught” against Bain.
Fast forward to March 27, and Bain sent a third cease & desist letter to Woods. Woods responded with two emails. According to the suit, Woods closed the first email with “Uou [sic] can kiss my black asd [sic].”
His second email said that any future correspondence from Bain will “be sent in the form of a blog to the universe”.
Woods’ web site at BainConsultingGroup.com currently shows a GoDaddy unavailable site page. Bain had complained to the registrar about the domain. For some reason the domain name no longer shows any whois record, although the domain is still registered at GoDaddy.
But Woods isn’t done, yet. On April 2 Woods allegedly contacted Bain’s outside counsel and told them he is “reopen[ing] the Bain Consulting Group” as part of a “guerrilla war” he was launching against Bain. According to Bain, Woods alluded to his earlier demand that Bain pay him money for the domain name.
Bain is suing Woods for federal trademark violation, unfair competition and false designation of origin, federal dilution, copyright violation, and violating the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.
yikes! says
“Bain is suing Woods for federal trademark violation, unfair competition and false designation of origin, federal dilution, copyright violation, and violating the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.”
Right. Bain has lots of money and plenty of attorneys. This guy is going to be in lots of trouble and will owe lots of money.
Scott says
This Woods guy has no case, is basically trying to extort money and is obviously squatting. It’s this kind of person that stains the entire domain industry in my opinion.
Puranjay says
This is such a clear TM breach. You don’t pick on one of the big 3 of the consulting world. They have attorneys and they will come at this Woods guy with everything they’ve got. It’s not a mere typo he’s squatting on; it’s the company’s exact name!
John says
Not too smart of Woods.
This guy gives regular, honest domain investors a bad name.
Glen Naughty says
It’s probably GoDaddy themselves trying to stick it 2 Bain thru their own surrogate. They did this 2 me from an offshore Inc. operation from Kiev. GoDaddy.com r crooks 2 be sure
They took the name from me based on info they obtained from my confidential customer service information & then tried 2 blackmail back 2 me. GoDaddy r the Vanguard of sleazy business dealing.
Bob Parsons & the replacements are the personification of breach of fiduciary duty. Verisign, ICANN, BBB, FTC, ITC, Monk, Consumer Reports, Judge Judy, & now Mit Romney should all Bee Aware
GuN
Dave Zan says
One Bain that’s going to be a bane on Mr. Woods.