LV firm in trademark dispute

Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2000 | 11:43 a.m.

A Costa Mesa, Calif.-based credit profile maintenance company is seeking an order that says it hasn't infringed on a Las Vegas income protection insurance provider's federally registered trademarks.

In a U.S. District Court lawsuit, Junum.Com Inc., which began offering in March credit profile maintenance services through its website "www.junum.com," said it took legal action against Unum Life Insurance Co. of America and its parent company, UnumProvident Corp. in response to their alleged demands to stop using the Junum trademark and domain names junum.com, junum.net and junum.org.

Junum.com is seeking an order to cancel UnumProvident's application for the UNUM and Unum and trademarks, alleging it made fraudulent statements to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office because it never used the marks to provide "financial consultation and financial management services, real estate financing services, namely mortgage lending ... (and) financial investment services in the field of real estate (and) securities."

UnumProvident officials could not be reached for comment.