Summary of the Legal Fight For NYCVB.com
In a November 2020 NYCVB lawsuit, the NYC & Company Organization sued the owners of nycvb.com. This was an attempt to get the domain name ‘nycvb.com’. The complainant claimed that they still had rights to the brand.
The lawsuit was not completely without merit. ‘NYC and Company’ had been in existence for over 85 years. Prior to 1999, the organization had been commonly known as ‘NYCVB’. NYCVB is also known as the ‘New York Convention and Visitors Bureau’. Our version of the NYC & Company History can be found here as they do not publish their own. They ban any Wikipedia text updates on their Wikipedia Page.
In September 1999, the organization renamed itself to ‘NYC & Company’ and effectively ceased trading on the name NYCVB. Since 1999, another organization had taken up the NYCVB moniker and started developed a thriving website around it. The NYC & Company Organization believes that it had a claim to a brand that they had discarded may years ago. Their one piece of evidence was that the City of New York blindly continued renewing the trademark NYCVB. This despite not having using the brand in any commercial way in 20 years.
NYCVB Lawsuit: Complete Documentation
The full documentation of the NYCVB Lawsuit can be found here.
Who Are The Players on the NYCVB Lawsuit?
Fred Dixon is the CEO and Charles Flateman is the chairman of NYC & Company Organization. These individuals were not happy to discover that another organization had taken their former NYCVB brand. The new organization had developed a successful tourist website at nycvb.com.
Despite not having any legitimate rights to the long-forgotten brand, the organization ‘NYC & Company’ sued the current owner of nycvb.com. In November 2020 they managed to convince a judge that they had rights to the brand. This is a brand that they have not used in over 20 years.
Prior Management Team at the NYC & Company Organization
The 2020 lawsuit discusses operational actions that date back to pre-1999. There have been a number of different senior managers at the NYC & Company Organization since then. Many are involved in this legal case. You can see the list of the list of the past and present NYC & Company Management Team here.