A home builder says a competitor copied its name online and quietly captured its leads
A Louisiana home builder says a competitor cloned its brand online - and quietly siphoned off its customers.
That accusation anchors a lawsuit filed June 9, 2026 in federal court in New Orleans. C-T Homes, which builds under the name Cretin Townsend Homes, is suing rival Andries Builders and an affiliated company, Andries Mortgage, over a website the plaintiff says was designed to impersonate it and capture business meant for the real company.
Start with who C-T Homes says it is. The builder has worked in Louisiana since 1976 and has operated as Cretin Townsend Homes since a 2017 merger with Townsend Homes. The company says it sells more than 150 homes a year, builds projects that each top $300,000, and pours "up to seven figures annually" into advertising - Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, billboards, and tie-ins with Nicholls State University and Southeastern Louisiana University.
Then comes the website. The suit says the defendants registered "cretintownsend.com" on October 28, 2025, lifting the plaintiff's trade name word for word. The filing claims the lookalike site mimicked C-T Homes closely and, according to the plaintiff, appeared as the third listing in search results.
The how is what should make builders and agents sit up. According to the filing, the fake site offered a contact form that "iteratively extracts valuable consumer information" - names, emails, project details - and sent every entry to a site the defendants controlled. An automated email then nudged those visitors toward the defendants' own business, the suit says, with follow-up messages to close the loop. C-T Homes says neither it nor the consumers knew the leads were being harvested.
The stakes, in the plaintiff's telling, were not small. The suit says each diverted inquiry could represent a construction contract "worth in excess of $300,000.00." Worse, it says, customers who got no reply assumed Cretin Townsend Homes had simply ignored them - a hit to the builder's reputation.
The filing also flags how the site disappeared. It says that shortly after an unauthorized communication with the defendants, the site went dark - timing the plaintiff argues "strongly suggests" an effort to "conceal its misconduct and destroy all evidence." That reading belongs to the plaintiff. The defendants have not responded to it.
One clarification on the second defendant. Andries Mortgage is named in the case, but the lawsuit accuses it of no specific act beyond providing, "on information and belief," mortgage and lending services to Andries Builders' customers in the same market. The conduct at the center of the suit is the builder's.
C-T Homes brings three claims: false designation of origin and unfair competition under the federal Lanham Act, cybersquatting under the same law, and unfair trade practices under Louisiana statute. It wants the court to cancel or transfer the domain, block any use of its name, force the return of captured customer data, and award damages - including statutory damages of up to $100,000 per domain and tripled damages.
The lesson for the industry lands cleanly. In a business built on referrals and online leads, your brand is only as protected as the web addresses and search rankings surrounding it. A rival's contact form wearing your name can quietly drain deals long before you spot it.
For now, these remain allegations. The defendants have not filed a response, and no court has ruled on any claim.
