February 17, 2006

Dell vs Dell: The short version of the story is here and it's been going on quite some time. Paul Dell had the audacity to register dellwebsites.com in 2001. Since then, Dell (you know, that huge computer company) have been trying to stop him using that domain.

I can't imagine the stress this poor bugger must be under. Imagine the audacity of using your name in a domain to promote your web design business! Anyone have the feeling they've heard this before? MikeRoweSoft? (probably the best known example.) Oh, and apparently he already went through this in 2002, and it's been going on (again) since 2005. The Register had the story January 2005, and now to help Paul Dell win against the big guys, some of his friends have set up pauldell.blogspot.com to try to raise funds and awareness (yet again) of Mr Dell's dilemma. Does anyone else think this is getting beyond a joke? (Besides Mr Dell? (Paul)

posted by sarah 18 years ago
  • Why not make a deal? Domains are a dime and dozen (well not really - what's the going rate these days, $10 for a year?). If Michael wants the name, he'll cough up a few months, perhaps a few years if Paul is a savvy negotiator, of website commission revenue.
  • I used to work for Dell Magazines. (publishers of crossword books and such.) Granted, the company was an offshoot of Bantam Doubleday Dell, hence its name... but whenever I told anyone where I worked I would pretty much have to say: "I work for Dell Magazines, which is in no way affiliated with the computer company" (Not that it was policy in any way, but most people naturally assumed that we did the catalogs for Dell Computers or something like that.) Still... I think 90% of people would in no way associate Paul's site with Dell computers, especially because he's not trying to pull a fast one. As for the other 10%, well... Those are who plastic bag hats and those tiny sacks of "candy" in electronic boxes are for.
  • Dell is a trademark. If I read 'dellwebsites.com' out of this context, I'd assume the site was affiliated with the computer retailer. If your name is McDonald, and you elect to open a restaurant called 'McDonald's', is McDonald's really overreaching if they object?
  • Stan... I believe they already did that in "Coming to America" with the McDonalds MacDonalds thing... Mind you, if youre not fighting a corporation it's relatively easy to win. When we moved to NYC, we bought a store called "Stamler's" (a jewish name) we bought a new sign with the same name, but we still were open on Saturday. Their lawyer contacted us and told us to change the sign or cease and desist Saturday business. My father changed his middle name to Stamler, and that was the end of that.
  • Plenty of people "read" my old company's name out of context. It doesn't mean that we were trying to play off the Dell name. That's just the lamb in you playing to popular advertising. If you actually bother to check the company out... where it be dellmagazines.com or the link listed above, you would find no relation.
  • Look... me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's... I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds.
  • I'm sorry, but what are the "damages" this giant computer company has suffered that they need to be paid for? Pain and suffering? Hospital bills? Defamation of character? I can understand wanting the domain, and these are legal waters that need testing, but come on: 100,000 Euro in damages to Dell America, 50,000 Euro to Dell France. They have also have ordered him to pay each Dell Company 40,000 Euro as well as 500 Euro for every presence of the word Dell on his site. I mean, seriously.
  • Here are some other options for him.
  • Yeah, I managed to miss the part where they're suing the guy for six or seven figures. Okay, I take it back- that's utterly unjustified and obnoxious.
  • Why not make a deal? Domains are a dime and dozen Offering to release a domain name in return for any sort of compensation is grounds for immediate loss of title, at least while the registration is in dispute. If your rights to a domain are up for review before the arbitration committees, and you negotiate in any manner for transfer of the domain, the committee will almost certainly rule against you as being a cyber-squatter for monetary gain. If you ever have a domain name in dispute the worst thing you can do for your case is offer to negotiate. The only safe response is complete rejection of any offer as being an affront to your plans for the domain.
  • I should also mention that a common corporate lawyer trick appears to be offering a ridiculous amount of money as a possible recompense for surrendering a domain, then once the domain holder responds at all favorably, even with the suggestion that the holder will consider the offer, using that response to get the ruling committee to immediately transfer the domain. Although I can't remember the details, I seem to even remember a case where a corporation made a huge deceptive offer, the honorable domain holder responded that the offer was ridiculously large and if he considered selling it would be for much, much less, preferably to charity, and that was enough to lose the domain.
  • Nal: wow, that's nasty, and leaves me with a yukky taste in my mouth.
  • If he had a dollar for every time . . .