Paul Dell is a website designer who lives in Spain. He purchased his DellWebsites.com domain name back in 2001. He has a wonderful family in Spain and is a very talented website designer, doing what he loves to do. Life is good for Paul Dell from Spain. Enter Dell Computer Corporation.
A few years ago, they went after happy Paul Dell from Spain. They claimed that his website name infringed on their trademark. Well, their corporation name infringed on Paul Dell’s family heritage. Really. They sued this poor man trying to force him to give up his domain name. In the first place, Dell Websites is completely different from Dell Computers, don’t you think? Dell Corporation sells computers. Paul Dell designs websites. If they think that those two businesses mean the same thing, then maybe Dell Corporation should change their business.
So, Paul Dell was confronted by Dell Corporation, asked to remand his domain name and go quietly away. He said a resounding NO. Dell took the not-so-subtle hint and crawled back into the woodwork - at least for a time.
Fast forward a few years ahead to 2006. Dell Corporation is at it again. They again claimed that Paul Dell, happy little family man who designs websites, has infringed on their trademark. This time, they took it just a bit further.
They contacted Paul Dell again and informed him that he was still using the name Dell Websites. Well duh, that IS his name and the name of his company. This time they decided to add to the pot just a bit. Not only did they request that Paul Dell give up his website domain, but they sued him as well - for hundreds of thousands of Euro. They claimed that his continued use of his domain name hurt their business. Again, Dell Computer Corporation - Dell Websites, do we see a BIG difference here?!
Paul Dell, who lives in Spain, was sued in France. His attorneys suggested he use a lawyer from France, a specialist in this type of thing who hails from Paris. Of course, these specialists can be very expensive. While Dell Corporation may have all the money in the world to throw away on frivolous lawsuits, Paul Dell is a family man and small business owner. The point here was to try to bully him into giving up his domain name by running him out of money.
The major point here is that if Dell really wanted to secure all forms and fashions of the Dell name, they should have done so when they purchased their trademark back in 1988. Paul Dell did not purchase his domain name until 2001. That is thirteen years that Dell Corp. had to go out and grab up any name that had any relation to Dell. If they didn’t do it when they had the opportunity, they were rightfully just out of luck. I mean, shouldn’t they also be suing small children in playgrounds around the world for singing “The Farmer in the Dell”? That could be an infringement on their trademark. Listen up Dell Corporation. Somebody out there is likely singing a song about your computer company.
Really though, Dell Corporation has no more right to Paul Dell’s website than anyone named Gates has the right to Bill’s fortune. It is as simple as that. Paul Dell has been running his website design business for years. He has every right to use his own name in the title of his business company.
And, don’t think for a minute that a big company will never come after you. This is definitely not the first time in internet history that this type of thing has happened. This is just one of the many disputes that big corporations have started to attempt to stifle the little guy. Until there are regulations strictly enforced for this type of harassment, these sagas will continue. Maybe ICANN needs to vamp up the way it monitors things like this. Maybe people need to be more aware of how big companies are simply out for the money that they can get. And maybe, just maybe, everyone should go out and buy an HP.
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