UPDATED: Coventry First Files ACPA Claim Over Twitter Account
UPDATE: On July 12, 2011, Coventry First filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal without prejudice of its complaint against the unnamed defendants who were never "formally served," according to the dismissal. Following is the original post about the lawsuit.
There is no shortage of reports about the complaint filed by Coventry First, "a leading company in the life settlement industry," against unnamed defendants for the use of the "domain" <twitter.com/coventryfirst>, so I'll keep this brief.
Coventry First makes the typical claims of, among others, trademark infringement and false designation of origin under the Lanham Act, but also asserts a claim under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act ("ACPA"). Specifically, Coventry First alleges that defendants registered, operate, traffic in and/or otherwise use "the domain name twitter.com/coventryfirst," which incorporates its COVENTRY FIRST trademark. The complaint doesn't appear to specifically allege that these purported activities were done with "a bad faith intent to profit" from the mark--an element required by the ACPA--but it does state that the alleged use of the mark in the "domain name" is unauthorized.
The case cite is Coventry First, LLC v. Does 1-10, No. 2:11-cv-03700-JS (E.D. Pa.), filed June 7, 2011. You can find a copy of the complaint here.
