Recent off a $1.5 million victory in an identical case, Frank Azar & Associates is suing a rival agency within the metropolis for allegedly shopping for Google advertisements to divert would-be Azar shoppers elsewhere.
Final fall, Michael “Alabama Hammer” Slocumb agreed to pay a $1.6 million settlement to Frank “Sturdy Arm” Azar’s agency after a two-year authorized dispute. Azar accused Slocumb of shopping for Google key phrases to make sure that Slocumb’s agency appeared when individuals looked for Azar, then failing to right shoppers’ misconceptions after they known as in search of the Azar agency.
“They decide on the massive TV advertisers,” Azar advised The Denver Publish in December. “As a result of individuals see their advert, they go to Google to get the cellphone quantity and so they misclick. After which all of the sudden, growth, they’re getting this different legislation agency that they don’t know something about.”
Now Azar is taking problem with an identical observe near house. On March 28, he sued Dominic Genco and his Genco Damage Attorneys, which has workplaces in Denver and Aurora. Genco launched his personal agency in 2022 after a decade as an lawyer at Azar & Associates.
“We’re in contrast to the legislation corporations you see marketed on TV who deal with everybody as a quantity,” the Genco agency’s web site states. “We wish to construct private relationships with every consumer.”
Each the Azar agency and Genco agency pay for Google key phrases, which be sure that their advertisements seem when individuals seek for sure phrases. However Azar claims that Genco goes past the pale. He bids for Azar’s title, forcing Azar to pay extra for his personal key phrase, and in addition buys Google advertisements that say “Frank Azar and Associates” however ship individuals to the Genco agency’s web site.
“On the course of Dominic Genco, potential shoppers of Azar are deliberately tricked and deceived into doing enterprise with Genco,” Azar & Associates’ lawsuit alleges.
That lawsuit, which accuses Genco and his agency of trademark infringement and false promoting, amongst different claims, doesn’t estimate how a lot cash Azar & Associates has supposedly misplaced to Genco. Within the Slocumb case, Azar claimed damages of about $19 million.
“Mr. Genco takes these allegations significantly and intends to defend this lawsuit vigorously,” stated his lawyer, Carl Hjort from Robinson Waters & O’Dorisio in Denver. “Nonetheless, as that is an ongoing authorized matter, we won’t be offering additional remark presently.”
Azar & Associates is represented by a trio of former Sherman & Howard legal professionals who are actually within the Denver workplace of the Taft agency, plus two attorneys with Martinez Legislation Group.
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