Audio Suppliers, Online Retailers Rumble
By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 1/25/2005
New York — Klipsch, Parasound and McIntosh have filed suits in federal court against select online retailers for selling their products without authorization.
Klipsch filed a suit in a U.S. District court against Brandnamez.com, while Parasound and McIntosh jointly filed a suit against ElegantAudioVideo.com and CraftwoodCustom.com. All of the suits seek injunctions and damages.
In Klipsch’s case, the supplier is suing on the same grounds that it used in a January 2004 suit filed again five unauthorized online retailers. Those sites settled out of court and agreed to a lifetime ban preventing the sites, their owners, and any future business that the owners might operate from selling Klipsch products. In that suit and its latest suit, Klipsch argues that the unauthorized dealers induced authorized dealers into transshipping products, interfered with contractual relationships, infringed on Klipsch trademarks, illegally used copyrighted Klipsch materials, and competed unfairly with Klipsch.
The suit by Parasound and McIntosh allege trademark infringement, unfair competition and false advertising. The suit said the administrative contact for both sites is Mark Herman, believed to reside in New York. ElegantAudioVideo’s principal place of business is listed in the suit as Englewood, N.J., and CraftwoodCustom’s is listed as Teaneck, N.J.
