THE world's largest day-to-day deals internet site, Groupon, which Google attempted to buy this month for $US6 billion, has confirmed it really is entering the Australian marketplace.

The corporation is recruiting persons to sign up to its e-mail database before a launch next month into a market place which is becoming crowded. The No. 2 player, Living Social, abandoned plans to begin from scratch in Australia, opting instead for a joint venture with an existing enterprise, Jumponit.

Advertisement: Story continues beneath

But due to the fact an existing Australian deals firm has had its application to use the Groupon name in Australia approved, the Chicago business has been forced to utilize the domain name of Stardeals in Australia.

Groupon has engaged the lawyers Clayton Utz to take action against Scoopon, a Victorian business that has been providing on line offers on goods and services in Australian cities for additional than 4 years.

Groupon lodged an intellectual property action within the Federal Court in Victoria in August and is as a result of go for mediation on January 21 or, failing that, towards the courts on February 4.

Groupon is also taking Scoopon to court in its property state of Illinois, claiming federal trademark infringement, unfair competition and deceptive trade practices, despite the fact that Scoopon's enterprise is limited to Australian shores.

Day-to-day deal sites provide discounts from neighborhood retailers, merchants and leisure operators, thereby restricting their operations to neighborhood corporations and shoppers.

A Groupon spokeswoman, Julie Mossler, said: "The [Stardeals] web site is live to accept subscribers but we are not yet providing offers at this time. We hope to be undertaking so within the next month."

An intellectual property lawyer, Trevor Choy, stated Groupon was paying the cost for its failure to register its trademark or name as it expanded globally. The US case was doomed to fail, he stated. "Groupon's lawyers must have identified that US trademarks cannot be enforced outside of the US against a business that does no business there."