A battle at the zoo

Seattle's Jobster Inc., which last month announced its plans to acquire online job search service WorkZoo, was sued on Monday by Atlanta-based Talent Zoo for trademark infringement.

The case has some interesting history since Talent Zoo entered an undisclosed settlement agreement with WorkZoo regarding the name earlier this month. Jobster refused to sign, and has since refused to cease using the WorkZoo name on its Web site, press releases and other marketing materials, according to Monday's lawsuit.

"Jobster's use of the WorkZoo mark has already caused actual mistake, confusion or deception of the general public," according to the suit. "Consumers, for instance, who have learned of Jobster's announced acquisition of WorkZoo.com have believed instead that Jobster was actually acquiring Talent Zoo."

A copy of the 40-page complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, can be downloaded here. (PDF)

Jobster CEO Jason Goldberg said he had not seen a copy of the complaint, adding that he believed the settlement between WorkZoo and Talent Zoo "was the end of it." Now, Goldberg said the company's attorneys are "digging into it."

Update: Goldberg just called back to say that Jobster refused to sign the settlement agreement earlier this month because it had not completed the acquisition of WorkZoo at that time. Now that the acquisition is complete (as of last week), Goldberg said he believes the company is living up to the terms of the settlement.