In the first of a series of battles to protect authorized Toshiba dealers business interests, Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. (TABS) announce that Toshiba Corporation won the arbitration against Selavy Media for bad faith registration and use of the “toshibatoner.com” domain name. Toshiba Corporation filed the complaint with the National Arbitration Forum in August 2006, arguing that Selavy Media did not have any right or legitimate interest in the “toshibatoner.com” domain name, and that the name was confusingly similar to the TOSHIBA trademark. Having won the arbitration, Toshiba Corporation has been granted full rights and usage of the “toshibatoner.com” domain.
“Toshiba Corporation has a zero-tolerance policy for the illegal use of its corporate identity, including as it relates to deceptive, misleading Internet business practices,” said Tom Walter, director Aftermarket Sales, Marketing & Operations for TABS. “With more cases on the docket for 2006 and 2007, we’re mustering the resources to aggressively police this type of piracy, in order to protect the business interests of our loyal, authorized Toshiba dealers.”
Selavy Media was profiting from the goodwill associated with the Toshiba name by operating a non bona fide pay-per-click Web site under the “toshibatoner.com” Internet domain. The confusing and misleading site redirected consumers to Toshiba competitor sites in the print cartridge industry, which in turn disrupted authorized Toshiba dealer business practices.
