Traffic trackers in copyright battle

A District Judge in San Diego has issued a temporary restraining order against a company that analyzes Web traffic to keep it from using a service that may be too similar to one created by a rival firm.

The order, issued Monday following a lawsuit brought by San Diego-based WebSideStory, prohibits WebTrends of Portland, Ore., from using its service pending a court hearing. Further arguments on the matter will be heard Jan. 31.

Trouble began on Nov. 17 when WebTrends released a new traffic analysis service called WebTrends Live targeting high-volume sites.

Six days later, lawyers at rival company WebSideStory filed a copyright and trade dress infringement complaint, claiming that WebTrends' new service was a rip-off of WebSideStory's HitBox design, which also tracks Net surfers.

"Our goal is to resolve this quickly," said Terri Nopp, spokeswoman for WebTrends. She declined to provide a defense to the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs in the case also declined comment, but in a press release issued today, WebSideStory founder Blaise Barrelet said, "Our HitBox design is important to our business, and we intend to defend it from infringement by third parties."