IT jobsite Jobserve has started legal action against IT recruiter RDL Group PLC and other consultancies accusing them of violating Jobserve’s database rights. Jobserve has accused RDL Group PLC, Relational Designers Ltd, jobsite Skillsite Ltd, the Directories Internet Ltd and RDL MD Andrew Richards of infringing their trademark.

Candidate CVs on Jobserve have been systematically transferred to rivals Skillsite, Jobserve MD Robbie Cowling alleged. As MD of RDL and a shareholder in Skillsite, Andy Richards was contacted prior to legal action to try to resolve the matter, according to Jobserve general manager Clare Lowther.

‘Relational Designers Ltd have been a long-standing customer of Jobserve and for many years they have subscribed to our CV service which had given them access to most of the CVs on our CV database,’ said Cowling. ‘We believe that this has been going on since Skillsite was launched in December 2000,’ Lowther told Professional Recruiter.

Jobserve also claimed that around 400 other jobsites were driven by the same database. Nearly all of these sites had the word ‘jobserve’ in their meta-tag, which means they would come up on a key word search for the Jobserve site.

Jobserve’s complaints will be heard in court in early February. Following the accusations, the ‘jobserve’ meta-tags ‘appear to have been removed from the jobsites,’ according to Jobserve. The number of CVs available to agencies subscribing to Skillsite has been reduced from over 105,000 in November 2001 to less than 50,000 currently, Jobserve said.

‘We have continued to monitor the website of Skillsite to ensure that the undertakings that were given are being properly complied with, pending the court hearing,’ said Lowther.

Andy Richards made no comment.