Yelp Trademark Suit Against Reputation-Control Firm Goes Forward

A reputation-management company sued by Yelp failed to convince a federal judge to dismiss trademark-infringement and unfair-competition claims brought against it.

Yelp adequately alleged that ReviewVio Inc. used Yelp’s trademarks in a way that might mislead customers to believe the two were affiliated, and ReviewVio didn’t “meaningfully challenge the sufficiency of the complaint,” Judge William Alsup wrote in an order filed Thursday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Yelp sued the reputation-management firm in December, three years after it discovered ReviewVio told businesses it could remove negative reviews on platforms like Yelp and sent the ...