Interlogic sues EOL over alleged copyright infringement

Friday, October 7th, 2005

LONDON - British online gaming group Empire Online Ltd is being sued for alleged copyright infringement in a Israeli court by InterLogic Ltd, a Cypriot company which runs the backgammon website www.65play.com. The company filed its suit at the Tel Aviv District Court against Empire Online, which was founded by the Israeli Noam Lanir and others, but which is registered in Cyprus.

InterLogic asked the court to slap a temporary injunction to stop Empire Online, which supplies services to gambling websites, from using the allegedly copied brand.

The company claims Empire Online's motive in muscling in on its brand is to compel the smaller company to sell itself to Empire Online. It runs one of the biggest backgammon sites to be found, InterLogic says, attracting thousands of surfers each day. In recent months Empire Online began announcing on its websites that it means to launch a new backgammon site, to be called 65.com.

Before running these promos, InterLogic claims, Empire Online tried to buy some of its website operations. That is why it suspects that the use of "65" is designed to exert pressure on it, a fact that it says it discovered to great astonishment.

Empire Online has registered multiple websites with the number 65, alleges InterLogic, which attests to its intentions. InterLogic also demands NIS 100,000 in compensation from Empire Online, without having to prove that damage was caused.

District court judge Yehooda Zaft has asked Empire Online for its response to the claims. An Empire Online spokeswoman confirmed that a lawsuit had been launched but refused to comment further.