PayCargo, a multimodal freight payment platform, said Tuesday it has collected $16.4 million after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April upheld a lower federal court decision sanctioning rival CargoSprint for breach of contract and unauthorized use of PayCargo’s federal trademarks.
A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in late 2022 ordered CargoSprint to stop using the PayAirCargo name in transactions, social media and other contexts and to pay nearly $12 million in damages, as well as attorney fees and other costs.
The dispute centered on CargoSprint founder Joshua Wolf initially naming the company PayAirCargo in 2012 despite knowing of PayCargo’s existence. The court determined the similar names created confusion among customers. Judge Lauren Louis in 2022 said Wolf engaged in “willful, pervasive and relentless” misappropriation of PayCargo’s brand for several years.
PayCargo said it waited until CargoSprint paid the judgment before announcing the outcome of the case.
“We’re extremely gratified with the court’s decision,” said PayCargo Vice Chairman Mitchell Baxt in a news release. “We’ve worked hard to build PayCargo’s reputation as the leader in the industry, so we owed it to our customers, employees, and business partners to defend it vigorously. Furthermore, the integrity of the industry needs to be protected to continuously advance and innovate.”
CargoSprint, which also offers a system for forwarders to schedule truck pickups and deliveries at cargo facilities, has previously argued that PayCargo went after it in court after CargoSprint refused to sell a controlling interest.
PayCargo, based in Coral Gables, Florida, is a multimodal freight payment platform that allows logistics companies, customs brokers and cargo owners to electronically pay transportation vendors from a prepaid account or bank account so that cargo can be quickly released. The system automatically notifies customers that an invoice is available in the online portal for review. As soon as the payment is approved, an email alert is generated alerting the vendor.
There are more than 130,000 companies in the PayCargo network, including the Japanese shipping consortium Ocean Network Express and Delta Cargo.
In a December 2016 settlement, Wolf agreed to change the company’s name and cease using the PayAirCargo name in any way, including advertising, email addresses and invoices. CargoSprint was also required to take affirmative mitigation steps, such as redirecting all internet traffic from the infringing domain name to the new website and advising senders to the support@paycargo.com email account of the new corporate name and email address.
PayCargo sued in 2019 over failure to comply with the settlement.
“CargoSprint respects the final decision of the appellate court, and has moved past this matter,” said Wolf in an email.
Click here for more FreightWaves stories by Eric Kulisch.
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