DEFENDANTS’ USE OF DOMAIN NAMES VERY SIMILAR TO PLAINTIFF’S STATED CAUSES OF ACTION FOR UNFAIR COMPETITION AND CYBERSQUATTING (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department determined plaintiff had stated causes of action for unfair competition and cybersquatting by using domain names similar to plaintiff’s:

… [D[efendants … operate a website accessed at idealyou.com. In 2016, … plaintiff…, established a competing business that operates a website accessed at idealbuff.com. …

… [O]n the day plaintiff opened her business, defendants purchased two domain names, idealbuf.com and idealbuffalo.com, and redirected all web traffic from those addresses to idealyou.com.  …

… As relevant to the cause of action for unfair competition, the statute prohibits using “any word, term, name, symbol, or device . . . or any false designation of origin . . . which . . . is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association . . . as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of . . . goods, services, or commercial activities by another person” … . We agree with plaintiff that, accepting the allegations in the third-party complaint as true … defendants’ use of the idealbuf.com and idealbuffalo.com domain names could be misleading and thus constitute unfair competition under the statute … . …

“To successfully assert a claim [for cybersquatting], a plaintiff must demonstrate that[:] (1) its marks were distinctive at the time the domain name was registered; (2) the infringing domain names complained of are identical to or confusingly similar to the plaintiff’s mark; and (3) that the defendant has a bad faith intent to profit from that mark” … . The Ideal You Weight Loss Ctr., LLC v Zillioux, 2019 NY Slip Op 05900, Fourth Dept 7-31-19