Zoom Gets Sued by Japanese Company That Stakes Claim on Name

(Bloomberg) -- Zoom Corp., a Japanese recording equipment maker with a 9.6 billion yen ($85 million) market capitalization, is suing the U.S. video conferencing giant of the same name because it wants to protect its trademark, but won’t be seeking damages. 

In a statement disclosed to the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Zoom Corp. said it filed the suit against Zoom Video Communications Inc. in the Tokyo District Court. The company, which has 95 employees, said it’s not interested in settling because it wants its registered trademark legally protected. 

A Google search for Zoom in Japanese brings up a trove of results for the Japanese unit of the U.S. video conferencing site, with a Wikipedia page listed as “Zoom (instrument maker)” buried among the results. Zoom Corp. was founded in 1983 and is listed on the Jasdaq exchange. It’s one of a crop of similarly named companies that were subject to confusion as people turned to its American name twin to navigate the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Japanese Zoom said “several” law firms specializing in intellectual property have advised it there’s a high chance that the American Zoom’s provision of video conferencing services to consumers infringes on its registered trademark rights.

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