Mary Kay cosmetics filed suit yesterday against Yahoo for trademark infringement, for allegedly inserting links to unauthorized retailers, in personal email messages that Mary Kay sellers send to their consumers.
“Emails that advertise Mary Kay products are hijacked and manipulated by Yahoo and provide an unfair advantage for the unauthorized re-sellers and other competitors,” the company alleges in its lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal district court in for the Northern District which is Dallas (yes Texas Again).
The cosmetics company is seeking an injunction and monetary damages. “We want Yahoo to stop doing what it’s doing,” says Mary Kay spokesman Crayton Webb. “Yahoo mail needs to stop infringing on our trade name.”
In its lawsuit, Mary Kay specifically complains about an ad format that sends pop-ups to users when they scroll over text in emails. These pop-ups allegedly contain links to sites run by unauthorized sellers of Mary Kay cosmetics.
Yahoo appears to have begun inserting these types of in-email ads earlier this year.
This suit appears to mark the first time a company has complained about links in personal emails.
Mary Kay argues in its complaint that many email recipients might “mistakenly believe that the hyperlinks and pop-ups which include ads associated with the Mary Kay marks were affirmatively included or authorized by either Mary Kay or the Independent Beauty Consultant sending the email.”
Off topic: in the “POLL” about .cm is missing “Yes, But Only Trademarked”
The Texas court is not surprising – Mary Kay’s headquarters are in Dallas.
Are these links being inserted because the Mary Kay rep is using Yahoo, or because the recipient is using Yahoo?
A friend and I spotted this “Texas” thing about eight months ago. There is definitely some coordination going on out there to attack on multiple fronts in the name of trademark interests and influence outcomes in their favor……including domains, of which the whole URS debacle is part of. This is all part of their “master plan” to change the structure and future to their liking.
The initial five year period for granted trademarks is ending, and now those TMs will become stronger trademarks. Many, many were filed back in 2002 and 2003 (INTENTIONALLY!) ……..so now if the URS is passed they will drop a bomb on many thousands of domains, many of which are generic, and will take them all down in lightning fast fashion. They will then just go to court to take the domains they wish.
Stay tuned….this has been in the works for years and they want our domain assets as well as creating case law in favor of trademark interests. Why do you think the URS and all the other extensions are getting jammed through with no regard to domain holders? Have you seen so much blatant disregard for domain holders ever? It’s all about the money and influence and it is coming largely from Texas.
It sounds crazy until you start connecting the dots……. and everything coming out of Texas……especially Dallas! That is your first clue as to the fact that something is “off”…… and no it is not me. 🙂
Yahoo isn’t doing any infringing. If anybody is, it is the advertisers that are paying for those ads.
Guess who that likely is?
Yup. Most likely current or even previous Mary Kay reps that ended up with a trunkload of product…
they are just pissed that the advertisers are no longer drinking the Kool Aide… it amazes me how ridiculous some of the MLM companies are when it comes to the idea that they want to have millions of representatives that will do all the marketing but somehow they become “un-authorized” sellers of the goods if they stop drinking the Kool Aide and want to recover the space in the garage that’s been taken up by all of the crap the person was talked into buying….
…although the point about targeting the ads, any ads for that matter – to the text in personal or business related emails just seems wrong.
Seems to me the users of Yahoo Mail should be the ones raising a stink over having their privacy violated.
Cookies, other user data collected responsibly and transparently is one thing… but reading emails? Seriously? Yahoo thinks this is OK?
I’m lost here. So Mary Kay products are still being advertised and sold as a result of the ads right? Just the ads aren’t going to authorized retailers. But it’s still selling Mary Kay products? So Mary Kay is upset about advertising that is selling their products that they aren’t paying for. What am I missing here?
JP – Mary Kay makes their money by selling product to their consultants, and has to recruit thousands of them to keep the cash flowing. They strongly encourage that a consultant recruit her customers to be new consultants … it’s a product-based pyramid, where product sales to real customers aren’t the real source of profit.
Having tons of product available for less than standard prices makes it obvious that it’s not a viable business. It also means that the people who buy from resellers aren’t going to be exposed to recruiting … and that dries up the steady stream of new recruits who can be bamboozled into buying lots of cosmetics they will then find out they can’t sell (as MK pockets their profits and the upline pockets the commission).
They are definitely hurting the recruiting and sales.
see http://www.pinktruth.com for the seamy side of the Mary Kay business.