Is KGB infringing on ChaCha's trademark?

In July 2008, ChaCha, the first human-powered search engine, began attaching a trademark designation in its web communications to the numeric string '242242,' which spells ChaCha and is the company's official SMS code. The Indiana-based company filed for a trademark for 242 242 in February 2008 that was successfully registered in September 2008.

It seemed that by late 2008 ChaCha was fully protected from infringements from other mobile services, cybersquatters, and others attempting to mooch off its brands. ChaCha's fortress of protection included its trademark and dozens of defensively registered typo-variants of 242242.com and registrations of 242242 in various tlds and ccTLDs.

Then came the Knowledge Generation Bureau, better known as 'KGB.'

Neither ChaCha nor we at Jamptap anticipated that 542542.com was a typo-variant worthy of registering. Had we, ChaCha's current troubles might have been lessened.

But KGB did go ahead and pick a strikingly similar SMS code to ChaCha's and register its corresponding domain. And, so, we have to first ask: why did KGB elect to choose a SMS code so similar to ChaCha's 242242 when it could have come up with a bunch of SMS codes that spell commonsense phrases like KGB-HQ, KGB-SPY, KGB-411, KGB-IQ, KGB-247, etc...? Is it because KGB wanted to mimic ChaCha's business model down to the 'T'' and didn't want to take any chances with a SMS code of different length and appearance from ChaCha's? (U.S. common shortcodes come in 5 or 6 digits.)

What can ChaCha do now? The first step is defining the issue at hand, which is that its new competitor, KGB, may be confusing ChaCha's existing and prospective customers with the SMS code of 542542 and the corresponding domain of 542542.com. (To make matters worse for ChaCha, KGB has deeper pockets, much more advertising, and the advantage of being a 'new' service.)

The second step is defining its options and the best option is defending itself via its trademark of 242 242. What ChaCha can do is OPPOSE the registration for the service mark of '542 542' filed by Grape Technology Group, Inc. (aka KGB) on October 10, 2008. That mark was for 'Telecommunication services namely two way sms messaging for search inquiries.' (KGB's filing, by the way, occurred four days before KGB registered the domain 542542.com.) ChaCha can oppose KGB's mark when it becomes 'published' [in the Official Gazette, a weekly publication of the US Patent and Trademark Office] and that may occur sometime in this spring (2009). source

If that fails, ChaCha certainly can file a suit in the federal courts and do the job there. The argument would simply be that another company picked a strikingly similar service mark for a very similar service. If ICANN's rulings provide any guidance here, if (usually) a typosquatter's domain is one character off from a domain protected by a trademark, then the complainant (trademark holder) prevails. One can argue that KGB's mark is one-character off from ChaCha's mark. That's the first part. The second part is proving that KGB provides the same or similar 'goods and services' as ChaCha. That is quite clear, even from their respective trademark filings: both marks pertain to providing 'search engine services' (ChaCha)/'search services' (KGB) via 'text messaging' (ChaCha)/'SMS messaging' (KGB).

ChaCha's survival is threatened and that wouldn't be anything unusual in the realm of business if everyone was playing fair. But KGB isn't playing fair.

ChaCha has KGB hot on their trail

In January 2009, a company called 'KGB' launched a premium text answer service that is so similar to ChaCha's that I doubt you'll be able to tell the two apart by the time you finish reading this post. The only difference between KGB and ChaCha's text services is that instead of inserting ads in text responses (as ChaCha does), KGB charges a $.50 fee per search.

So, what are the similarities?

1. Both are human-powered mobile search engines; instead of 'guides,' KGB uses 'Special Agents'

2. KGB also employs a catchy SMS code, but KGB's code spells the name of their company twice: 542542 for KGBKGB.

3. Both companies' SMS codes are repetitions of a three-character word (although only one SMS code spells the full brand name of a company)

4. Like ChaCha, KGB bought and forwarded the dotcom wordnumber for KGBKGB - 542542.com - to its website; KGB registered the domain via an entity called Tenpenny Group, Inc.

The indictment:

I seem to recall that ChaCha's text code is 242 242 and that numeric string seems awfully similar to 542 542. Is it coincidence or sleezy marketing? Any of ChaCha's customers for its text service simply need to slip their thumb down a notch - accidentally or purposely - when spelling out 'Cha' twice on a keypad and *somehow* arrive at their competitor's service. How convenient!

I'm not the first one to point out the coincidences behind KGB's 'offering.' 'Stephen' at forums.online-sweepstakes.com wrote on January 4:

I think they are trying to rip off ChaCha, personally.

They are charging 30-70cent per answer though.

Also, how can 542542 and 242242 be a coincidence?

ChaCha should get 'em for infringement I believe..

I think I'll start a company called BIL and launch a text answer service using the SMS code of 245 245 for BILBIL. All my agents/guides will go by the name of 'Bill' and, of course, I'll forward 245245.com to my site. And maybe, or perhaps very likely, I'll get some of the (texting) type-in traffic from both ChaCha and KGB.

Related post: ChaCha ventures into uncharted trademark territory

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Say goodbye to Dodgeball. Say Hello to Four....

It looks like WordDial won't be needing 363432255.com anymore. Dodgeball, which that numeric domain spells, is one of six services that Google is closing down. Dodgeball was acquired by Google in 2005. You may remember that its founders left their positions with Google in disgust in 2007 over Google's apathy towards the ingenious find-your-friends social networking mobile service.

Rumor has it that Dodgeball's original founders are going to clone the killed service and call it Four Square. Don't blame us if we're wrong but do credit us if we're right if you successfully register 3687778273.com (FOUR SQUARE).

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Anyone care to speculate why WordDial decided to forward 9256278.com (WALMART) to its SEARCH (search engine list) portal? I'm guessing Google Product Search will soak up most of that traffic.

92466.com out with a cold

Quick news: WordDial-owned domain, 92466.com, which spells Yahoo, is not resolving to its SEARCH portal 732724.com. The SEARCH portal list, however, still includes a link to Yahoo. Interestingly, 663732724.com (ONESEARCH) is still being forwarded there. Yahoo stopped paying??

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