Empower Retirement sues Empower Geographics over web domain

The rights to the use of the empower.com domain are at the heart of the suit, which was filed in federal court in Illinois.

Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co. and its Empower Retirement unit have filed a lawsuit against Empower Geographics Inc. and its president for threatening to sell the empower.com domain to Empower Retirement’s competitors “and professional cybersquatters.”

According to a suit filed in federal court in Illinois, Great-West accuses Empower Geographics, which is based in the Chicago suburbs, of trademark violations, deceptive trade practices and unfair competition. It charges that from June 2016 on, the Empower site “appeared to be solely used for the purposes of advertising the sale of the domain.”

The suit says that negotiations between the parties have failed as a result of the defendants’ demands.

Great-West is seeking “actual damages, lost profits, consequential damages, exemplary damages, statutory damages, and any other damages allowable under law.”

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