It's not always good to be a geek.
Best Buy Co. has sued an Ohio man for using its Geek Squad brand name for computer services in his own business.
The Geek Squad name is held by a subsidiary of Richfield-based electronics retailer Best Buy, BBY Solutions, which is suing Nathaniel W. Parsons for alleged trademark infringement and cybersquatting. U.S. law defines cybersquatting as registering or using a website name that is "confusingly similar to, or dilutive of, a trademark or personal name."
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, alleges that Parsons has registered the Internet addresses affordablegeeksquad.com and cheap geeksquad.com for his computer services businesses, and also alleges that his use of the Geek Squad trademark "has caused, and will continue to cause, irreparable harm" to Best Buy. The suit seeks $200,000 in damages plus attorneys' fees.
While the suit says that the Internet addresses are registered to Parsons in Ohio, it doesn't list a city address.
However, a database of website owners operated by GoDaddy.com, a firm that registers websites, says that both affordablegeeksquad.com and cheapgeeksquad.com are registered to Nathaniel Parsons at the same street address in Lakewood, a Cleveland suburb.
A call to Parsons at the phone number listed for both businesses was not returned.
The GoDaddy.com database shows that the affordablegeek squad.com website was registered to Parsons in July 2011. The cheapgeeksquad.com website was registered by him in April of this year.
Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553
