Suit filed against Microsoft over Bing trademark

San Francisco, Dec 18: Microsoft has been sued by US technology firm over the trademark Bing, lawyers of the firm informed on Thursday, Dec 17.

A case has been filed against Microsoft by Bing! Information Design (BID) in the circuit court in Missouri for infringement of trademark, unfair competition, and tortious interference with business expectancy.

Stating that his client has been using the Bing! mark for the last ten years, attorney Anthony Simon said that Microsoft's action has spoiled his client's effort to have a unique name for itself in the market and has brought in confusion with the name.

"Microsoft's use of the identical mark and its aggressive advertising have gutted all of my client's efforts to distinguish its business and created confusion that must be remedied," he said.

Simon informed that the St.Louis-based firm was involved in creating interactive illustrations, designs, graphics, animations, and technical diagrams.

Meanwhile, Microsoft in an news agency report has denied receiving a formal complain, but said that the company was ready to defend itself in the court as the allegation against the company is baseless.

"We believe this suit to be without merit and we do not believe there is any confusion in the marketplace with regard to the complainant's offerings and Microsoft's Bing," Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz said.

Microsoft had globally launched its Bing search engine in Jun 2009, in sharp competition with Google.

It had also started integrating messages from Twitter into Bing, including a status updation plans with Facebook.

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