Los Angeles, CA – Chiropractor Dr. Jeffrey James’ trademark attorneys filed a trademark infringement, Lanham Act unfair competition, and a false advertising lawsuit at the Federal District Court in Los Angeles, against rival chiropractor Dr. Michael Karr, dba West Los Angeles Chiropractic. Dr. James asserts that he has provided chiropractic services under his personal name and “Westside Spine and Injury Center” – which function as his trademarks – in the Los Angeles area for over 20 years. Dr. James has also maintained a website since 2004 to attract potential consumers of his services throughout the United States and the rest of the world. The complaint states that over “the past 10+ years, [Dr. James] has built a strong following and became (sic) famous for his services, and the name ‘Dr. Jeffrey James’ has acquired secondary meaning as a designation of source or origin of the high quality services the [Dr. James] provides under the name ‘Dr. Jeffrey James’ and ‘Westside Spine and Injury Center.'”
Dr. Karr operates a website on the Internet located at westlachiropractic.com to advertise his chiropractic services in competition with Dr. James. “In or about March 2008, [Dr. James] discovered [Dr. Karr’s] use of his name ‘Dr. Jeffrey James’, in order to attract potential customers to [Dr. Karr’s] website.” Dr. Karr allegedly also used “Dr. Jeffrey James” as a “keyword trigger on the Google website by affirmatively requesting that the Google AdWords program list [Dr. Karr’s] Website when a Google user inputs ‘Dr. Jeffrey James’ as a search request, using the name ‘Jeffrey James’ in the title of the advertisements so as to attract Internet users . . . and creating the false impression that [Dr. Karr was] related to [Dr. James] (“Palming Off”) in order to induce their business or cause initial interest confusion.” In addition to a preliminary and permanent injunction, Dr. James seeks monetary damages against Dr. Karr. The case is titled: Dr. Jeffrey James D.C. v. Michael Karr, CV08-02231 GPS (C.D. Cal. 2008).