Clothing and accessories retailer The Gap has filed a cybersquatting lawsuit against the owners of thegap.com.
The firm has held a trademark for ‘The Gap’ since 1972, however it only registered domain names for gap.com, gapkids.com, and babygap.com during the internet boom.
India-based The Gap Entertainment was quicker out the blocks to register thegap.com, a domain name it has held since 1994, reports the Blog of Legal Times.
However, The Gap claims the domain name is now being used to facilitate fraud, by luring customers into giving out their personal information in bad faith.
The retailer is concerned that its brand could be connected to thegap.com – hence it has launched a cybersquatting lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
According to the firm, the current use of thegap.com “is likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake or to deceive consumers” about the online activities of The Gap.