| GMAC v LendingTree
GMAC files lawsuit over GMAC.RealEstate.com June 4, 2004 By PATRICK CROWLEY |
| What’s in a name? Plenty, when that name is an Internet domain coveted by one of the biggest players in the nation’s mortgage business.LendingTree.com is primarily an Internet mortgage lender based in Charlotte, N.C. It’s main Web site address is, not surprisingly, LendingTree.com.
But LendingTree also owns the domain name realestate.com, along with the sub-domain .realestate.com. LendingTree controls the sub-domain name as part of a strategic move, the company explained in a written statement e-mailed to MortgageDaily.com. “Any word entered mistakenly prior to the sub-domain realestate.com will naturally call up realestate.com,” which leads to LendingTree’s Internet Web site, the company said in the statement. (Try it. Type www.yourname.realestate.com. You’ll land at LendingTree’s site.) “There are legitimate business reasons for setting up domains in a manner that resolves the sub-domains of URLs into the main address,” LendingTree said in the statement. “This is not unique, and even the previous owner of the realestate.com domain had the URL set up the same way.” So LendingTree claims it was taken aback when General Motors Corp. filed a federal lawsuit against the company. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Flint, Mich., accuses LendingTree of using an Internet address that is similar to the Web address used by GM’s mortgage lending unit, General Motors Acceptance Corp. That address is gmacrealestate.com. Adding the dot between “GMAC” and “realestate” — which comes out to be GMAC.realestate.com — will direct people to LendingTree’s site. GMAC did not return phone calls to comment. However, published reports indicate that GMAC — which earned nearly $3 billion last year — is accusing LendingTree of misappropriating the site name “to capitalize on and profit from the substantial goodwill that GM has developed in these trademarks … and to mislead the public and consumers” that the site is affiliated with GM. But LendingTree said it has never used the GMAC name, nor does it intend to. “It’s important to note that we have never marketed or promoted in any way the use of any GMAC name or mark as a sub-domain of the realestate.com domain,” LendingTree said. “GMAC alleges that this third-party use of the realestate.com domain constitutes an infringement of its trademark rights, and that this was done intentionally … to divert customers from GMAC’s Web site,” the company said. “This is simply not true. LendingTree has done nothing in the past, nor will it in the future, to divert GMAC’s (Internet) traffic,” it said. LendingTree hinted that the issue could be resolved in GMAC would contact the company to discuss the matter. “GMAC never contacted LendingTree about its concerns, but apparently chose to file suit first rather than contacting us to request our assistance in resolving this issue, which we believe can be easily accomplished,” LendingTree said. Dave Hatter, president of Libertas Technologies of Covington, Ky., said what LendingTree did in locking up the sub-domain name is not all that unusual in the world of cyber commerce. “I doubt they did this intentionally to somehow get at GM or GMAC,” Hatter said. “I would think GMAC, even though they have very deep pockets, will not have an easy time getting a federal court to block this.” |
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Patrick Crowley is a political reporter and columnist and former business writer for The Cincinnati Enquirer. Email Patrick at: pcrowley@enquirer.com |
