Automotive Aftermarket Leader J.C. Whitney & Co. Seeks Injunction Against Carparts.com.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 1999--

J.C. Whitney & Co., www.jcwhitney.com, the world's largest direct marketer of automotive parts and accessories, has filed a six-count lawsuit against Carparts.com for unfair and deceptive trade practices. According to the J.C. Whitney suit, Carparts.com, based in Santa Monica, CA, has been driving Internet users to its web site by misappropriating the J.C. Whitney trade name, using such URLs as "jcwhitneya.car-carparts.com", "jcwhitney.car-carparts.com", etc. Such actions are alleged to constitute unauthorized use of the J.C. Whitney name and trademark, and a violation of U.S. trademark law under the Lanham Act.

Filed December 3, 1999, in federal district court for Northern Illinois, Eastern division, the suit contends Carparts.com has acted "with fraudulent and unfair intent and purpose, and with the intent to cause confusion, mistake and to deceive." The suit charges Carparts.com with having undermined J.C. Whitney's reputation and goodwill and with deceiving consumers in the process, despite a July 1999 demand that it cease and desist. J.C. Whitney's management intends to protect its trademark rights against any potential infringement so as to protect its good name and avoid confusion among its customers.

In addition to a permanent injunction against Carparts.com, the action also calls for purging the World Wide Web of the URLs "jcwhitneya.car-carparts.com", "jcwhitney.car-carparts.com" or any other URLs designed to misuse the J.C. Whitney name on the Internet; and for compensation, for both damages and costs. The suit also seeks an injunction to prevent Carparts.com from utilizing the J.C. Whitney trademark as a keyword or meta tag on search engines, portals, virtual servers and other sites for the purpose of redirecting traffic from J.C. Whitney to their own site.

J.C. Whitney was among the first marketers of automotive parts and accessories to launch an e-commerce Internet site, as www.jcwhitney.com. First introduced in fall 1997, J.C. Whitney's flagship site offers products for repairing, maintaining, customizing and restoring a full range of vehicles -- automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, off-road and recreational vehicles. Established in 1915, J.C. Whitney is known the world over as the source for "everything automotive". J.C. Whitney maintains the largest inventory in the industry: over 55,000 items covering more than 4.2 million automotive applications, from the latest model year back to the 1920s. J.C. Whitney offers products for virtually any vehicle through its comprehensive family of general and vehicle-specific catalogs, and on the World Wide Web at www.jcwhitney.com and at www.phatspeed.com.