All your Dell are belong to us
2006.02.17
When you’re big, it’s difficult not to be a stinking bully. And that’s exactly what Dell Computers (no link love for those bastards) seem to be with their case against Paul Dell (Thanks, Vicki). Paul makes websites for a living, and has a website www.dellwebsites.com where he sells his services. The big Dell thinks the small Dell has to give up his site, and pay for using it all this time.
From the Help Paul Dell Win website:
Paul has been summoned to appear before the Tribunal de Grande Instance Paris. Dell Computers is suing him - not just to get the domain name from him, but also 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.
Dell claims he has committed acts of parasitism and of unfair competition to the detriment of the American company Dell INC and the French company Dell, and its commercial name: Dellhost as well as its domain names: dell.fr and dellhost.fr. I guess Paul is pretty scary to a big company like that. He has such an unfair advantage — especially in size. ;)
http://pauldell.blogspot.com/2006/02/help-paul-dell-beat-giant.html
More information could be found at the insightful The Register article by Kieren McCarthy.
This is a typical example of how modern “IP” laws could be bent to fit the needs of those who have enough cash behind them. It’s not the first unreasonable domain dispute, but it would be great if we manage to make it the last.
Paul Dell is a little guy, like most of us. He needs our help.
9 Comments
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the1truecoolguy
February 17th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Wow. Sometimes these big corporations amaze me. This reminds me of a similar situation with Microsoft last year. A 17 year old Canadian named Mike Rowe decided to buy www.MikeRoweSoft.com . Sure enough, MSFT came after him…how strange…
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/01/19/offbeat.mike.rowe.soft.ap/
Mahangu
February 17th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
It’s court cases like these (and in most cases their outcomes) that make me lose faith in the law everywhere.
Asela
February 17th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
shame.
Vicki
February 17th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
Thanks, Prabhath… very much appreciated and by Paul too.
sittingnut
February 17th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
the problem is to determine to what extent the website profited from business that came it’s way due to dell (the big one) and it’s brand. after all these days brand is the main product of many companies, especially ones where the basic product has more or less become a commodity like in pc business. let’s not forget that for few legitimate companies with similar brand names there are hundreds of others specially created to take advantage other’s brands.
enough of me being devil’s advocate, i do hope paul dell wins this with costs. as several others have.
Dulan
February 19th, 2006 at 9:23 am
Since there doesn’t seem to be any attempt by Paul to copy the “look and feel” of the sites by Dell Computers, it’s obvious that Paul hasn’t tried to unduly benefit from the similarity of his surname to that of a more popularly known Dell.
This is an age where the Japanese and Americans are patenting Ayurvedic methods and where the smell of freshly cut grass is being patented. To me, there is a likelihood that surnames - despite being common to people - could soon end up being trademarked.
O tempora, O mores!
John Dell
February 23rd, 2006 at 3:02 am
As someone with the surname Dell myself I am horrified by this - As I understand it Paul Dell was not a “cybersquatter” - (someone who had just bought a domain name + done nothing with it ); he is clearly using the domain to try and make a living. Dell computers never gave him a chance to negotiate, he just got the court summons out of the blue. When he tried to make sure there could be no confusion with Dell computers by making ammending his home page to clearly point out that it was run by a Mr Paul Dell living in Menorca the Dell corporation came back claiming more money because there was now another mention of the word “Dell” on the web site - ie the “Dell” in Paul Dell! - There are thousands of Dells throughout the world - what are we supposed to do? Will we be taken to court if we dare to use our own name on our blogs and websites? - Will the Dell Corporation want the names of all the Dells who died in the World wars erased from War memorials because it could confuse any passed by who might think the memorial had something to do with the Dell computer corporation? Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computers, should hang his head in shame.
MediaRocker
April 1st, 2006 at 1:27 am
Well honestly dell is out of sync on this. after all its his name! why dont they sue all the other 3,000,000,000 dell’s in the world?
but i also have a problem too.. someone stole my companies name to use it for a spam and phishing site.
My company is small. i dont make much money off of it. but i do it because i like to help. i run a custom computer and computer repair buissness and i know about big buisnesses sueing their liknesses. but honestly dells lawsuit is unnessicary. Dell hasnt done anything wrong. i do not belive dell is a cybersquatter..(which now i just noticed john elaborated on earlyer)
Although i do not use my real name in my company anylonger due to the threat of it being misused on the internet, i recently faced legal action from a local company that had beleived i stole their name. which of all was not true, i had my company well established (although it wasnt really pulling in money and few people knew about it) before they had and they had descovered me. they dropped the charges shortly after a settlement talk that i retain the rights to my name and that they would then change theirs.
but i also see dells point in case as well (not that i support their action but) dellwebsites.com looks like a site to luer dell customers away and phish information (although this is simply not the case) also they have a registered trademark on the name.. (although yet again this is simply not the case) why dont they sue Dell Foo Youngs Chineese Resteraunt? www.dellfoo.com (ironicly this is a parody of the name, “your getting a dell foo” *foo being slang for fool* ) (no this isnt a real place.. i think..) but yeah. i’m with you on this. your name is dell.. what are they gonna do.. make all Dells born change their names?
Sorry dell. i feel for you.
(and not meaning this is a bad way i’ll still buy dell computers cause HP’s are all i get service calls on)
Hope everything works out. and i support you.
MediaRocker
April 1st, 2006 at 1:32 am
Backtrack here.. Paul dell’s site has helped me alot! i came across this somehow. and paul’s site had templates that i was looking for! thanks paul!