Email Appenders, which is being sued by Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition LLC for falsely offering for sale a list of attendees to the Internet Retailer conference, did not show up for its court date last week.
Jack Love, president of Vertical Web Media and publisher of Internet Retailer magazine, says Email Appenders did not appear for the hearing or issue any statement. Love testified at the April 7 hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Blanche Manning of the Northern District of Illinois.
“I told the court that we do not sell, rent or give away our attendee list to anyone, that we had not, and would never, allow Email Appenders or any other third party to rent or sell our list on our behalf, and that we had never given Email Appenders permission to use our trade name,” Love says. The suit also claims that Email Appenders violated trademarks of Internet Retailer and its conference, known as IRCE.
Love also testified that the actions of Email Appenders had caused his company damages, but that he could not estimate the cost of that damage without having more information on the number of people Email Appenders contacted to sell what they claimed was the IRCE list.
“I said we wanted this stopped because if vendors in this industry think they can purchase the IRCE list they have less incentive to exhibit at the show. And if potential attendees think we are going to sell their information to outsiders, they would have less desire to attend the conference.”
Love says the suit is extremely important because IRCE tells both its attendees and exhibitors that it does not sell or rent the IRCE attendee list, and that Email Appender’s unauthorized use of the IRCE brand name hurts his company’s credibility in the marketplace.
Email Appenders first began offering the list shortly after the Internet Retailer show in June. About 20 IRCE 2008 exhibitors forwarded e-mails they had received from Email Appenders in which the company offered to sell what it claimed was the IRCE attendee list, Love says.
Internet Retailer’s attorney sent Email Appenders a letter asking that it stop offering the list for sale. Email Appenders resumed efforts to sell the list in November. They asked either $2,500 or $3,500 for the list.
Love says the judge is reviewing Internet Retailer’s motion for a permanent injunction.
“We have invested a lot of time and money to build our brand into the largest conference in e-retailing and the fastest-growing conference and trade show in North America, and we want to be certain to do whatever we can to protect the integrity of our brand,” Love says.
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