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http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/0...7a023985025.txt

Tourism bureau suing Serenity Springs

By Stan Maddux
For The News-Dispatch
Published: Friday, February 18, 2011 5:07 PM CST
The La Porte County Convention & Visitors Bureau has gone to court against a tourist attraction it alleges stole its new slogan to gain Internet exposure.

Serenity Springs resort might be hurting other businesses in La Porte County that rely on tourism from Google searches redirected to its webpage and away from the tourism bureau website.

So, the LCC&VB has filed a lawsuit against Serenity Springs in La Porte Superior Court 4 seeking an injunction that would stop the resort from using “www.visitmichigancitylaporte.com.”

“We own the name. We’ve trademarked the name. We invested the money into the brand. We intend to secure it,” LCC&VB attorney Michael Bergerson said.

Last fall, the LCC&VB launched a new marketing campaign that included the new slogan, “Michigan City La Porte.”

Bergerson said Serenity Springs had a representative on a committee that helped develop the slogan and almost immediately after it was unveiled, Serenity Springs began using the Web address “visitmichigancitylaporte.com.”

Originally, the LCC&VB intended to have a webpage with the www.visitmichigancitylaporte.com address, Bergerson said.

Bergerson alleged Serenity Springs began using that address knowing the new LCC&VB slogan would generate a good number of website hits it could redirect to its page.

That forced the LCC&VB to leave out the word “visit” from its web address to give searchers a way to access the LCC&VB webpage.

Bergerson said the addresses, though, are too similar and can easily misdirect web searchers.

“It’s obvious they stole our name. We are advertising essentially for them,” Bergerson said.

Bergerson also argued a website with the words Michigan City and La Porte has no connection with the name Serenity Springs, something he felt will indicate wrongdoing to the court.

He said attempts have been made to settle the matter out of court, but to no avail.

“I think ultimately we will be proven correct,” Bergerson said.

Repeated attempts to reach the attorney for Serenity Springs, Jonathon Watson of Elkhart, and Serenity Springs officials were not successful.

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http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/1...c9140178454.txt

Resort owner faces possible jail time

By Stan Maddux
For The News-Dispatch
Published: Saturday, November 19, 2011 5:07 PM CST
The court is ordering Serenity Springs’ owner into jail if she doesn’t stop using visitmichigancitylaporte.com.

Friday’s decision stems from legal action by the La Porte County Convention & Visitors Bureau, which alleged copyright infringement over its new slogan: Michigan City La Porte.

On May 27, the court issued a preliminary injunction ordering Laura Ostergren to stop using visitmichigancitylaporte.com to direct users to the Serenity Springs resort website until the matter is resolved at trial.

La Porte Superior Court 4 Judge William Boklund ruled Ostergren deliberately chose not to comply with the court’s order.

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“(The) defendant’s conduct was a direct and deliberate effort to circumvent the order of this court and rises to the level of both indirect and criminal and civil contempt” he said in his written decision.

In holding Ostergren in contempt of the court’s order, Boklund ordered she pay a $2,000 fine to the court by no later than 3 p.m. Tuesday. She also was ordered to stop using visitmichigancitylaporte.com by 5 p.m. Wednesday. If she doesn’t, she will be ordered to surrender herself to La Porte County Jail. She would be held there until she complies with the order or until further order by the court.

Ostergren also was ordered to pay the LCC&VB $1,000 a day for every day she continues using visitmichigancitylaporte.com.

Last fall, the LCC&VB launched a new marketing campaign that included the new slogan, “Michigan City La Porte.”

In suing Serenity Springs for copyright infringement, attorney Michael Bergerson said in February that Serenity Springs had a representative on a committee that helped develop the slogan, and almost immediately after it was unveiled Serenity Springs began using the web address visitmichigancitylaporte.com.

Originally, the LCC&VB intended to have a webpage with the www.visitmichigancitylaporte.com address, Bergerson said, alleging that Serenity Springs began using that address knowing the new LCC&VB slogan would generate a good number of website hits that would be redirected to the Serenity Springs webpage.

Bergerson said the addresses are too similar and can easily misdirect web searchers.

Several attempts had been made to settle the matter before legal action was taken.

Ostergren was unavailable for comment Friday.

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http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/1...98830940151.txt

Serenity Springs complies with order

By Stan Maddux
For The News-Dispatch
Published: Thursday, November 24, 2011 5:08 PM CST
The owner of Serenity Springs has avoided going to jail after complying with a court order to stop using a website address.

“It appears right now they have complied,” said attorney Mike Bergerson, who is representing the La Porte County Convention & Visitors Bureau in the case.

The order by La Porte Superior Court 4 Judge William Boklund on Nov. 16 was in response to a lawsuit by the LCC&VB, which alleged trademark infringement over its new slogan “Michigan City La Porte.”

On May 27, the court issued a preliminary injunction ordering Serenity Springs owner Laura Ostergren to stop using visitmichigancitylaporte.com to direct users to the Serenity Springs website until the matter is resolved at trial.

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Boklund ruled Ostergren deliberately chose not to comply with the court’s order. In holding Ostergren in contempt of the court’s order, Boklund ordered she pay a $2,000 fine to the court by no later than 3 p.m. Nov. 22. According to court records, the $2,000 fine was paid Nov. 18. Ostergren also was ordered to stop using visitmichigancitylaporte.com by 5 p.m. Nov. 23. Failure to do so would have meant Ostergren being ordered to surrender herself to La Porte County Jail and remain there until she complied and paid a $1,000 fine for each day she failed to stop using the www.michigancitylaporte.com Web address.

Bergerson said the Serenity Springs website no longer comes up when logging onto www.michigancitylaporte.com. Instead, the Go Daddy.com website comes up. Go Daddy.com is the company Serenity Springs went through to obtain the website.

In the end, Bergerson said the hope is to win the lawsuit and have Go Daddy.com issue the www.visitmichigancitylaporte.com address to the LCC&VB for its website.

Bergerson said the “Michigan City La Porte” slogan was unveiled last fall as part of new marketing campaign and was going to be part of a web address directing users to a LCC&VB Web page.

Almost immediately, Bergerson said Ostergren began using the slogan in a web address to redirect people searching for things to do in La Porte County to the Serenity Springs website.

Bergerson called the practice “cyber squatting.”

“It’s a burgeoning new area of the law where people attempt to gain markets through misdirection,” Bergerson said.

Ostergren declined an offer for comment.

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http://heraldargus.com/articles/2012/05/02...d6960741705.txt

Injunction issued against Serenity Springs

From staff reports
Published: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 5:04 PM CDT
MICHIGAN CITY — La Porte Superior Court 4 Judge William J. Boklund has issued an injunction prohibiting Serenity Springs and its president Laura Ostergren from using the name or trademark VISITMICHIGANCITYLAPORTE, which is the domain name for the La Porte County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

According to Boklund’s order, Ostergren and Serenity Springs must within five business days of May 1 transfer and assign the domain name registration to the Michigan City La Porte Convention and Visitors Bureau. The court declined to order an award for damages in the lawsuit.

On May 27, 2011, Boklund’s court issued a preliminary injunction ordering Serenity Springs to stop using visitmichigancitylaporte.com to direct users to the Serenity Springs website until the matter was resolved at trial.

According to the lawsuit, the CVB filed an application for trademark registration of the new branding phrase and logo on April 28, 2010 and a certificate of registration was issued May 13, 2010.

According to the lawsuit, a representative of Serenity was present at the public meeting in which the new branding effort was discussed and almost immediately after the meeting, Serenity secured a domain name using VISITMICHIGANCITYLAPORTE as part of a domain name. Serenity purchased VISITMICHIGANCITYLAPORTE.COM through GODADDY, an Internet registration website, according to the lawsuit.

Since that time, the trademark has been commonly used by the bureau in its marketing efforts, according to the lawsuit. Prior to the time the preliminary injunction was ordered, Serenity hosted a website at VISITMICHIGANCITYLAPORTE.COM which redirected users to the website for Serenity Springs, according to the lawsuit.

The court agreed that the trademark for the convention and visitors bureau and the second domain name are so similar that it caused confusion and was an attempt to deceive those attempting to access the bureau site.

According to the lawsuit, the bureau could not quantify its existing damages, although it did demonstrate that continued wrongful use of the branding would result in lost revenues to taxpayers by misdirection of tourists seeking general information about La Porte County being directed to Serenity only.

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http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local...15a1c6dc3d.html

By Stan Maddux Tribune Correspondent

A six-year legal dispute over allegations of cybersquatting that went all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court has finally been settled with the LaPorte County Convention & Visitors Bureau getting the website address it wanted.
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Under a settlement agreement, Serenity Springs Resort must transfer its website address, ''visitmichigancitylaporte.com,'' to the county visitors bureau and in exchange will receive $7,500 from the tourism group.

''The parties in the case were able to reach a mutually satisfactory settlement and that ends the dispute between them,'' said Shaw Friedman, an attorney from LaPorte representing the tourism bureau in the matter.

Jack Arnett, executive director of the LCC&VB, would not comment' referring all questions to Friedman.

Friedman, though, declined to respond further, saying both sides have agreed as part of the settlement to ''limit their comments.''

The dispute began in 2009 when the tourism bureau adopted ''Visit Michigan City LaPorte'' as its new brand.

The address of the bureau's website containing information about events and other local attractions was going to carry the same name. However, when visitmichigancitylaporte.com was entered into browsers a day after the brand was adopted, users were redirected to the Serenity Springs website.

A Serenity Springs employee had already registered the website address, leading to allegations by the LCC&VB of trademark infringement.