December 16, 1996 6:00 PM ET
E-mail marketer loses another suit, this time to Prodigy
By Maria Seminerio

E-mail marketer Cyber Promotions Inc. scored a hat trick recently as it lost its third legal battle with a commercial online service. Prodigy Services Corp. received an undisclosed sum in damages from the Philadelphia-based mass-mailer after a judge last week ordered it to stop sending unsolicited E-mail advertisements to Prodigy subscribers and falsely claiming its advertisements were sent by Prodigy, company officials said. Competing online services CompuServe Inc. and America Online Inc. have won similar injunctions against Cyber Promotions over the last few months, but users bombarded with "spam mail" from the company might not have noticed a significant decline in volume: Getting mail through is as simple as changing domain names when old ones are blocked. But Prodigy officials said the court settlement translates to a victory for subscribers. "Prodigy will continue to defend its brand, its image and its name against any entity attempting to associate [its] name with unsolicited E-mail advertising," said Marc Jacobson, general counsel for Prodigy, in White Plains, N.Y. Copyright(c) 1996 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. PC Week and the PC Week logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. PC Week Online and the PC Week Online logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Send mail to PC Week