VANCOUVER - An upstart private college says there was no intent to trick students when it changed its online identity to sound similar to a more established post-secondary institution, the college鈥檚 lawyer told B.C. Supreme Court.
鈥淕iven (91原创 Career College鈥檚) overall advertising and admissions policies, there was no deception to the public,鈥� Luciana Brasil told Justice Kenneth Affleck Monday.
91原创 Career College is embroiled in a civil suit over the moniker VCC in a case that could have implications for how businesses represent themselves and solicit customers online.
91原创 Community College, a public school founded in 1965, accuses the for-profit 91原创 Career College 鈥� operating since 1996 鈥� of adopting the abbreviation VCC to confuse students who want to study at the better-known 鈥淰CC鈥� but may not know what the initials stand for.
While 91原创 Community College opened its case two weeks ago, Brasil called her first witness for the defence on Monday 鈥� Randy Cox, president of the parent company that runs the career college and five other similar private institutions.
He testified VCC is a short form that his college has always used.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been used since the mid-1990s,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 become just an identifier for the institution.鈥�
Cox said he knew of no students who withdrew from 91原创 Career College because they discovered they had made an error and had meant to enrol in 91原创 Community College.
He testified that external signs at his campuses spell out the college鈥檚 complete name and that staff answer phones 鈥�91原创 Career College,鈥� not VCC.
Cox said he was not aware of complaints by 91原创 Community College that his institution was misrepresenting itself until the lawsuit was filed in 2011. That prompted him to phone Peter Chung, the controversial American businessman who owns the 91原创 Career College chain.
鈥�(Chung) told me this pops up from time to time. The first interaction was in the late 1990s. It came up again in the early 2000s. He told me it was nothing to worry about. It was an acronym he had been using since the mid-1990s,鈥� Cox testified.
Chung, who was entangled in a class-action lawsuit brought by students at a California private college and fined $12 million in 1993, is expected to testify Tuesday.
This VCC case is, ultimately, about big money.
After he became president in 2008, Cox said he took the company from earning annual revenues of $14 million to more than $100 million, through marketing initiatives and the expansion of programs.
Not long after, in May 2009, 91原创 Career College changed its website to VCCollege. ca, and paid for key words in Internet searches such as 鈥淰CC鈥� and 鈥�91原创 Community College,鈥� the plaintiff鈥檚 lawyer, Chris Wilson, earlier told the court.
Searches on those words would first produce two paid results 鈥� for 91原创 Career College and its sister school, CDI 鈥� before showing the non-paid result, for 91原创 Community College, Wilson said.
Cox said he was not involved in those decisions, but saw an internal marketing report spelling out the plan. He said he had no concerns the strategy would upset 91原创 Community College because it was a public, not private, institution.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 consider them to be a competitor,鈥� he said.
Under cross-examination, Cox agreed the new 91原创 Career College website launched in 2009 said 鈥淲elcome to VCC鈥� and made multiple references to the initials.
Wilson asked Cox about a 2009 complaint by private college Sprott Shaw that 91原创 Career College was using Sprott Shaw鈥檚 name in online search-engine optimization techniques to lure students away.
Cox agreed that Sprott Shaw was a competitor and that the scheme would 鈥済enerate interest鈥� from prospective students.
In 2011, an email was sent to Cox that said Sprott Shaw had discontinued its lawsuit. 鈥淟et鈥檚 do something else to piss them off,鈥� Cox had replied to the email.
Cox testified the email quip meant he wanted his team to take more of Sprott Shaw鈥檚 market share.
The defence is expected to call witnesses all this week.
