Job search giant Seek and US competitor ZipStorm in trademark fight over ‘SeekOut’

A fight over the ‘seek’ trademark has been bubbling away for years between the $8bn Australian job search company and an American competitor.

Seek founder Andrew Bassat and chief executive Ian Narev.

Australia’s biggest job search company Seek is locked in a legal stoush with a US competitor.

The $8bn publicly listed Australian company has threatened to stop US recruitment firm ZipStorm from using its “SeekOut” trademark, with a years-long dispute between the two companies reaching a new peak last week, according to documents lodged by the American business.

US court filings lodged in Washington last week, reveal ZipStorm has asked the district court to declare it has not breached Seek’s trademark and that it has not “suffered harm and is not entitled to injunctive relief, damages, or any other relief”. “Founded in 2017, Plaintiff (ZipStorm) has advertised, marketed, built, and provided an industry leading recruiting and talent optimisation tool that enables employers to quickly hire, grow, and retain talent while focusing on diversity, technical expertise, and other hard-to-find skillsets,” the court filings said. “Through significant investment, Plaintiff (ZipStorm) has earned substantial goodwill and consumer recognition in the SeekOut marks for use in connection with its recruitment and talent optimisation products and services.”

ZipStorm said that after it raised $189m in 2017 and before it won local awards in start-up categories in 2021, it secured a SeekOut design mark and registered the SeekOut word mark in the US in April 2019.

Neither application was opposed, and the trademarks were approved according to the documents. ZipStorm has also applied for an additional design mark this year.

However, in 2021, Seek opposed ZipStorm trademark applications lodged in Singapore, including use of the word SeekOut.

“Following years of attempted settlement negotiations, on June 14, 2024, Plaintiff (ZipStorm) filed an invalidation action in Singapore against Defendant’s (Seek’s) Singapore Registration … for SEEK,” the filings read.

“On August 30, 2024, Defendant (Seek) sent a demand letter to Plaintiff (ZipStorm), threatening in part to ‘commence proceedings against (ZipStorm) for trade mark infringement’ unless Plaintiff (ZipStorm) ceases use of the SeekOut marks in Singapore and other countries in which (Seek) has prior rights in and to SEEK’.

“Defendant’s threats of infringement action concerning Plaintiff’s use of its SeekOut Marks in undisclosed countries expands this dispute outside of Singapore and into the countries that Plaintiff currently uses its SeekOut Marks, including the United States.”

ZipStorm claimed visits from American consumers ranked the US as the fourth most popular country to visit the seek.com.au website, constituting 1.64 per cent of the website’s visitors according to analytics from Semrush analytics included in the court filings.

According to the same set of analytics, more than 125,000 unique visitors from the US have visited Seek’s websites, the court filings read.

“On information and belief, many of those United States website visitors reside in Washington,” the court filings said.

Seek, whose CEO is Ian Narev, operates online marketplace platforms targeting job seekers searching for new roles.

ZipStorm said Seek’s “express threat” to challenge its use of its SeekOut marks created “a significant risk” for its business in the US, including Washington.

“(It) would have a ripple effect, also impacting employers, including Washington based employers, which use Plaintiff’s SeekOut-branded platform and could lose access to a critical element of their talent acquisition operations,” the court documents read.

“Accordingly, defendant’s (Seek’s) threat renders declaratory judgement necessary and appropriate at this time in order for the parties to ascertain their respective rights.”

Seek was contacted for comment.

Originally published as Job search giant Seek and US competitor ZipStorm in trademark fight over ‘SeekOut’