The Comphy Co. (“Plaintiff”), a California corporation selling luxury bedding products, filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. (“Defendant”) in the Northern District of Illinois alleging trademark infringement, contributory trademark infringement, and false designation of origin under federal law. The complaint also alleges violation of Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act and Consumer Fraud under Illinois law.
The claims primarily involve (1) the Plaintiff’s “COMPHY,” stylized “C,” “COMPHY COMPANY,” and “COMPHY SHEETS” trademarks and (2) Plaintiff’s insistance that it has no interest and has expressly refused to sell its products on Defendant’s website, amazon.com. According to the complaint, the Defendant is making unauthorized and infringing use of Plaintiff’s trademarks by using the trademarks to promote bedding and related products not made or authorized by the Plaintiff on Defendant’s website. In particular, the Plaintiff states that the Defendant is posting results for “inferior” third-party sheets when consumers search for terms including Plaintiff’s trademarks on Defendant’s website. Moreover, the Defendant pays third-party search engines to direct consumers to Defendant’s website when searching for “COMPHY” brand sheets. Such actions are said to drive sales to competing products and are likely to cause and have caused actual confusion.
The Plaintiff asks the court for an injunction as well as a variety of monetary damages, fees, and costs.
The case can be followed at The Comphy Co., v. Amazon.com, Inc., 18-cv-04584 (N.D. Ill.).