St. Louis design company sues Microsoft over Bing name

Editor’s note: Bing! Information Design was misidentified in the earlier version of this post.

A small St. Louis graphic design firm is taking on Microsoft Corp. over the use of the name Bing.

Bing! Information Design sued Microsoft Dec. 16 in St. Louis Circuit Court, alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition over the name of Microsoft’s new search engine. Microsoft launched Bing this year, at least nine years after Bing! Information started using the name, according to the lawsuit. 

Bing! Information is asking for Microsoft to stop using and promoting the name, for “corrective advertising” and lost profits.

Bing has helped boost Microsoft’s share of the search market. Bing gained 0.4 points of the search market in November, the first time since September 2007 that Microsoft had more than 10 percent of the market, according to a report on CNNMoney.com.

Anthony Simon, of The Simon Law Firm, is representing Bing! Information. Simon in May won a $6.6 million verdict in a lawsuit against Yahoo! Inc. Simon’s client, Creative Internet Advertising Corp., alleged Yahoo!’s messenger program infringed on one of Creative’s patents.