Since 2008, the Cincinnati company known as Everything But The House has spread its online auctions to 27 cities and built up a work force of more than 500 people. Its home-clearing auctions have drawn bidders from 46 countries. It sold more than $30 million worth of stuff in 2015.
“Consumers have come to recognize EBTH as the source of high-quality online auction and estate liquidation services throughout the United States,” the company says.
But along came a website that was too close to home for EBTH Inc. The name? Everything Besides The Dog. It’s based in New Albany, Ohio, an eastern suburb of Columbus. Here’s how it bills itself:
This was too much for Everything But The House to take. It filed suit in federal court in Cincinnati. It claimed trademark infringement, unfair competition and violations of the Ohio Deceptive Trade Practices Act. It asked U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett for an injunction shutting down the knockoff operation.
That was Jan. 13, and nothing changed. Until Friday, that is, when CityBeat reached out to the defendants in the lawsuit, EBTD owners Tyler and Ashley Fickel, through Facebook Messenger. Asked to respond to the lawsuit, Tyler Fickel wrote, “They are not perusing (sic) this lawsuit. It has been resolved. The ‘company’ that we had was a hobby idea that never happened.”
The hobby that never happened looked rather well developed when CityBeat dropped in on its website Friday. “Find out why we are the premier estate sale company in Central, Ohio!” boasts the greeting on its home page.
Everything But The House wasn’t going to tolerate such insolence. “Defendants intentionally selected the names Everything But The Dog and EBTD solely to capitalize on the renown, goodwill and success of EBTH in a conscious attempt to misappropriate the foregoing for their own, personal benefit,” EBTH contends in its lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed by Thomas Hankinson and J. Michael Hurst of Keating Muething & Klekamp. As of mid-day Friday, it was active, and no records had been filed indicating a settlement agreement or EBTH’s intent to withdraw its complaint. CityBeat asked Fickel for any documents referring to the resolution he spoke of, but received nothing.
“If this is all you have to put in your paper no wonder the newspapers are dying,” he wrote on Messenger.
While waiting for his responses, CityBeat browsed the pages of Everything Besides The Dog, which EBTH’s lawyers referred to as Everything But The Dog, which is a dog products store in Reading, Mass. EBTD’s owners were totally up front about who they are.
But when CityBeat clicked on the “Upcoming Sales” tab, this came up.
In the middle of the site visit, someone had turned it off. And later that afternoon, a notice was filed by the court that the lawsuit had been voluntarily dismissed. Hmm. Did CityBeat‘s nosing into the case spur it to a happy ending, or was it mere coincidence that a month-old lawsuit was settled at the very moment that CityBeat started asking about it? Court files will never say.
CONTACT JAMES McNAIR: jmcnair@citybeat.com, 513-914-2736, @jmacnews on Twitter
This article appears in Feb 15-22, 2017.