Lawsuit over Internet search keyword

A French financial consulting firm has filed suit in Paris against a
non-profit scholarly arts association, claiming over a million dollars
in damages because the latter's use of the keyword "Leonardo" is causing
Internet search engines to display the arts association's web pages as
well as the firm's pages.

In filing its Nov. 18 suit, the advisory and funding firm of Transasia -
along with undisclosed "co-complainants" -- claimed to have recently
trademarked in France the names 'Leonardo," "Leonardo Finance,"
"Leonardo Partners," 'Leonardo Invest" and "Leonardo Experts."

TRENDING: Dems' 'loyalty through fear' program: Saddam would be proud

According to a press release on the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Press website, which publishes a journal
authored by the defendant, Association Leonardo, "Transasia is claiming
over a million dollars in damages based on their claim that a search
engine request using the word "Leonardo" brings up not only their
websites but also those of the Leonardo arts organization."

Such search engine results, the company said, results in lost business
and, hence, lost revenues.

The suit asks that Association Leonardo be forbidden from using the word
"Leonardo" in its website projects or any other products or services and
seeks damages.

Worse, after the financial firm secured the issuance of the suit, it
asked French authorities to secure a search warrant for the premises of
Association Leonardo to see if police could find any "incriminating" use
of the word Leonardo. According to MIT, "the search warrant was served
with no prior warning by a squad of eight policemen."

The Association Leonardo has retained the services of Maitre Jocelyne
Granger, a Paris attorney, and "we are preparing a legal response," said
Roger Malina, Chairman of Leonardo/ISAST, San Francisco. When French
police raided the Association Leonardo offices, "they had instructions
to copy all papers with the word 'Leonardo' on them. More absurdly, they
had instructions to log into the Internet presumably to show that the
Leonardo websites could be accessed. ... They left with copies of papers
dating back to the 1960s."

RELATED: SOPA opponents may go nuclear

Malina also said a legal defense fund has been established in
California to
defend the organization.

Since 1968, Leonardo/ISAST and Association Leonardo have worked on
behalf of a worldwide community of artists, scientists and scholars. The
network has produced the scholarly journal "Leonardo," now published by
MIT Press located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The organization also
grants prizes and awards, co-organizes conferences and events, and
publishes the Leonardo Music Journal, numerous Leonardo websites Leonardo and the Leonardo Book Series
through MIT.

"We seek to make visible and promote the work of artists involved with
science and the new technologies," Malina said. "Some 2,000 artists,
scientists, engineers and scholars are involved in the network and its
various projects worldwide."

The Leonardo Network was originally founded in the mid-1960s by eminent
astronautical pioneer and kinetic artist Frank Malina.