By Ahmad Hathout
OAKVILLE, Ont. – Oakville-based telecom SkyChoice said today it has partnered with a grassroots organization to help it set up a legal fund to challenge a lawsuit by Bell, which claims the small company’s use of the word “fibe” violates its trademark.
The two sides have been fighting over the trademark since 2020, when Bell filed a trademark infringement suit against SkyChoice’s use of the word in its “WiFibe” (wireless fiber) fixed-wireless Internet product. SkyChoice has subsequently filed a counterclaim to make Bell’s trademark invalid because the term is commonly used. The case has largely been sidelined by the Covid pandemic.
In a press release on Tuesday, SkyChoice said its counterclaim is in part to ensure smaller ISPs can compete against the giants. “Fiber optics are now a key selling point when marketing fast and reliable Internet,” the company said in the release.
“Bell’s trademark registration of fiber’s first four letters allegedly impedes independent ISPs the ability to use the word fiber when branding their services.”
The company’s CEO, Serge Cormier, said in the release “Independent ISPs are already operating at a competitive disadvantage largely due to restricted or cost prohibitive access to incumbent fiber optic facilities in Canada, which has some of the world’s most expensive Internet prices.”
SkyChoice said it has teamed up with Freedom Fibers – an organization with the goal of lowering wholesale Internet rates smaller providers pay the larger ones to lease network space – to help it establish a legal fund to challenge Bell on its claim.
“This will ultimately assist in reducing big telecom’s stranglehold in providing and marketing affordable Internet services in Canada,” the release said.
Bell first filed a trademark challenge against the smaller provider in June 2020, in which it claimed damages as a result of the defendant’s use of the fibe trademark, which allegedly has caused confusion in the market.
But SkyChoice says Bell’s Fibe Internet and its own WiFibe products operate on different technologies, in separate geographies and using distinct marketing graphics and icons, claiming customers would not be confused as to which company they are buying from. SkyChoice said its WiFibe products serve rural areas and is not exclusively fiber, as it also uses older copper wiring to deliver the service.
“Any similarity between the Defendant’s trademark and the Plaintiff’s trademark is due to the common and widespread use of the word ‘fiber’ in recent years once fiber optic high speed Internet became largely available,” SkyChoice said in its claim.
SkyChoice says in its counterclaim that the word fibe is “not distinctive” and was “filed in bad faith.”
