Search service ChaCha has sued HTC for trademark infringement over its upcoming "Facebook phone," dubbed the HTC ChaCha.
Using the ChaCha name for the phone is confusing and might make consumers think that the ChaCha service and the ChaCha phone are linked, according to the suit.
ChaCha is a search service that debuted in 2006. Two years later, it expanded to mobile, launching a service that lets people ask questions via voice or text, and receive responses from ChaCha within minutes.
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week, HTC unveiled five new phones, two of which include a dedicated button that takes users directly to Facebook. That includes the HTC ChaCha, which has a 2.6-inch, horizontal 480-by-320 screen, and will be available in the U.S. later this year.
"ChaCha has spent considerable time, effort, and expense developing brand recognition in the ChaCha mark," the company said in its suit, filed in Indiana District Court. HTC naming its phone the ChaCha "is likely to cause consumers to mistakenly believe that there is an affiliation between ChaCha and the infringing phone, or that ChaCha has endorsed HTC or the infringing phone, or that ChaCha has otherwise approved HTC's use of the ChaCha mark."
ChaCha said it sent a letter to HTC on February 16, and followed up with a February 17 letter to HTC's general counsel in Taiwan, but HTC has failed to "substantively respond."
For more, see PCMag's hands on with the HTC ChaCha and the slideshow below.