American International Group Inc. must give up control of an Internet domain name, according to a federal judge's ruling in a case involving the C.V. Starr brokerage now headed by former AIG chief Maurice Greenberg.
U.S. District Judge Harold Baer ordered AIG to remove all content and cease operation of the Web site at www.cvstarr.com by May 14.
The ruling is just one in a series of court cases in which once tightly intertwined entities are now working out separation issues.
“Today's ruling is the first step in affirming that the Starr companies, formed decades before AIG, are independent companies with their own assets and businesses apart from AIG,” said Ken Plevan, partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Judge Baer ruled that “C.V. Starr has demonstrated that consumers searching for C.V. Starr's Web site after May 14 could easily be misdirected to 'cvstarr.com' rather than to C.V. Starr's current site at 'cvstarrco.com.'”
C.V. Starr claimed AIG's license to use the Starr trademark ended after C.V. Starr's subsidiaries stopped acting as managing agents for New York-based AIG's subsidiaries.
AIG claims that because it treated Starr as a subsidiary for decades, it in effect controlled the quality of its services.
“AIG contends that C.V. Starr has no presence in the marketplace separate and apart from AIG,” Judge Baer wrote. “C.V. Starr, of course, thinks otherwise.”
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