United Airlines wins injunction against complaint website
United Airlines has won the verdict in a long running intellectual property case against an activist who has led a one-man crusade against the airline for 20 years.
United won an injunction against Canadian Jeremy Cooperstock who runs Untied.com which is a parody of United’s official website.
After being irked by a stock reply to a complaint he made in 1997, Cooperstock has collected 31,000 complaints from other United passengers and gives tips on how to complain or sue the airline.
On Cooperstock’s site the United globe logo has frowning face and states it is an ‘evil alliance member’ rather than a ‘star alliance member.’
United filed a lawsuit five years ago claiming trademark infringement and said it could fool customers into thinking they are complaining on the official website.
A Canadian federal court judge agreed.
"We are pleased with the court’s decision. We have always maintained that Mr. Cooperstock should be able to voice his opinions, and our case was to protect United customers and avoid confusion by asking him to not use our intellectual property on his website and related channels," United said.
Cooperstock said he may appeal.
"I think there’s great value in humor in getting people to step up and take notice," he said.
When he created the parody site, Cooperstock said he looked forward to taking it down when United began ‘treating passengers with a little more dignity,’ and didn’t expect it still to be live 20 years later.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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