In what is a real David vs. Goliath battle, a small St. Louis-based web design company called Bing Information Design! Is suing Microsoft over its Bing search engine, claiming that Microsoft needs to compensate them for stealing the name Bing, the company says it hold the right to use on the net.

The lawsuit specifically states Microsoft’s new search engine causing confusion regarding the relationship between plaintiff and defendant, also tends to confuse the public as to the origin of the plaintiff’s services, including diluting the value of its trademark.

The company’s suit is not only seeking ‘actual and punitive damages’ running into millions, it also want Microsoft to ‘pay for corrective advertising to remedy the confusion it caused.’

However, the Bing Information Design! site has little resemblance to Microsoft’s search engine and can hardly cause confusion between the two, as Microsoft’s search engine does not offer web designs, nor does the St. Louis web design company help them search for new and exciting websites.

Microsoft, on its part describes the suit as one with absolutely no merit, as no one seems to be confused between the web site design firm’s offerings and Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

As well, the complainant did not file its trademark application for the name till May, around the time news about Microsoft’s new product had spread across the internet. While, Microsoft filed for its trademark applications for the name for a variety of uses, such as, search engine software, interface software, advertising, telecoms and for ‘providing a website and website links to geographic information, map images and trip routing,’ in March.

In addition, a web-based shopping service called BongoBing and software company Terabyte, whose product is called BootIt Next Generation or Bing for short, are the other two firms also taking action against Microsoft for trademark infringements.