On Wednesday in the Central District of California, Tree House Recovery (THR) filed a complaint against multiple entities, bringing allegations such as trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertising.
The plaintiff, a facility offering addiction recovery programming, owns the trademarks associated with the mark “Tree House Recovery,” Nos. 5,012,191 and 5,002,780, according to the complaint. The defendants — Freedom Healthcare of America and a subsidiary, Vertava Health and subsidiaries, and unknown individuals — offer similar addiction and substance abuse services, the complaint added.
According to the complaint, in November 2016, the defendants filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to register a design trademark that included the words “The Treehouse.” The USPTO refused the application, allegedly due to the similarities between the proposed design mark and the plaintiff’s trademark, the complaint said.
However, the defendants have continued to use the allegedly infringing mark despite it not being registered with the USPTO, the plaintiff claimed.
Particularly, the defendants use the website “treehouserehab.org” while the plaintiff uses “treehouserecovery.com.” The plaintiff argued that the similarity between the domains “is likely to” or “has caused actual confusion” among the public and that the defendants continue to use this domain intentionally, knowing that it has the potential to cause conflation.
Further, the plaintiff alleged that the defendants have placed bids on certain keywords related to the trademark-in-suit using Google’s AdWords service, giving the defendants a leg up in Google search results.
The plaintiff argued that its business has been harmed by the defendants’ alleged conduct and is seeking a declaration that the defendants’ actions constitute infringement, as well as monetary and injunctive relief.
The plaintiff is represented by Berstein Law.
