Healthcare IT company sues Uber for trademark infringement after being inundated with misdirected communication.
A healthcare IT company in Florida called Uber Operations, LLC is suing ride hailing company Uber Technologies for trademark infringement after dealing with confusion between the two companies.
The lawsuit (pdf) explains a number of headaches the company has experienced from people thinking it is the ride hailing company.:
Actual customer confusion, initial interest confusion and/or reverse confusion have already occurred on numerous occasions, all to the detriment of Uber Operations. In fact, Uber Operations receives and has received multiple telephone calls and emails from the public looking for or complaining about Uber Tech and/or its goods and services. Uber Operations has received thousands of calls, emails, and faxes directed to Uber Tech. This is a constant business interruption and distraction, resulting in lost time and productivity. In addition, Uber Operations has been sent information relating to background checks, credit checks and other personal information (presumably for Uber Tech drivers or prospective drivers). Uber Operations has been sent packages with phones and other personal items in them. Uber Operations has received financing applications (with personal information) for the “Uber Xchange” leasing program (as previously noted, Uber Operations has used the mark “UberXchange” for many years).
Uber Operations says it has also received government orders meant for the California company as well as bad reviews on internet review sites.
The experience reminds me a bit of what happens when a company doesn’t use a domain name that matches their company name, or doesn’t use the .com (or logical country code).
surf599 says
Uber, really needs to change it’s name to RideCall.com
John Kubota says
Or, RideBani.com, RideRific.com, RideTonomy.com or RideTropolis.com
Peter N says
Uber is well known as Uber, so they don’t necessarily need to change that, but their domain name could be called something like UberRideShare or UberRideCall.