Caribbean Medical School Sues Former Student

PASADENA, California CMC – One of the Caribbean’s leading medical schools has sued a former student for trademark violation and dilution, cybersquatting and breach of contract.

Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica filed a civil suit in US Federal court against a former student, Behzad Amini, claiming that the “disgruntled dropout launched more than 20 bogus websites” accusing it of corruption.

According to a report in Court House News, “Ross claims that Amini dropped out after two years, after another student filed a grievance against him.”

It said Amini agreed to withdraw voluntarily if the grievance was withdrawn and the hearing canceled.

But since then, officials at Ross claimed that Amini has repeatedly sent emails, sometimes to more than 300 recipients, including senior hospital officials in the United States, accusing the university of corruption and of defrauding the government.

Ross claims that Amini’s RossU.net website contains links to other pages that contain defamatory statements about the university. The lawsuit, however, does not demand damages for defamation.

“Amini himself states that within the next few weeks ‘many of my websites against Ross University will hit the web, in all the top search engines, parked next to Ross University!,’ – i.e.  so as to increase the likelihood that they will be mistakenly accessed by those looking for the actual Ross University websites,” the complaint says.

Besides damages for breach of contract, cyber squatting, and trademark dilution and infringement, Ross seeks an injunction ordering Amini not to breach the settlement agreement, enjoining him from using the Ross trademarks and requiring him to cancel all infringing domain names.

Ross is represented in the lawsuit by attorney James Flynn, along with the Newark, New Jersey-based law firm of Epstein, Becker & Green.