Euregio.net's lawsuit claims that InternetHoroscopes.com, which is part of the web property of Women.com, used content from EasyScopes.com to improve its search engine rankings.
"The stolen text was published using white letters on a white background on all pages of InternetHoroscopes.com," explained Joe Savelberg, co-founder and on-line producer of Euregio.net. "This means the text was not directly visible for normal visitors but was still indexed by search engines."
Although the word "EasyScopes" was replaced by "Internet Horoscopes" throughout the text, the publishers of the infringing site kept original spelling mistakes and references to other trade marks of Euregio.net. Search engine queries for the copyrighted text and trade marks brought up the Belgian site.
Women.com has now removed the infringing text and published an acknowledgement of the infringement on InternetHoroscopes.com. However, according to Savelberg, Women.com has not met Euregio.net's demands for compensation. Accordingly, Euregio.Net has Net filed for damages in a Belgian court.