Dell vs Dell. Please help.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Danny Boy
  • Start date Start date
Danny Boy said:
Jim Cheshire wrote:



Jim,

First off, I believe we can be pretty sure that Michael Dell is well aware
of the case.

All he has to do is to say "stop", and it would stop. But I can actually
understand if he want this tried in a court to see if Paul actually is
breaking some law or regulation. He could do that without intimidating
Paul with a law suit of that magnitude. He could sue Paul for a symbolic
sum of USD 1.00.

Why doesn't he do that? Because he is sanctioning the method of scaring
Paul into handing over the domain. To me, that's greed and what villains
do. The difference is that when "real" criminals are threatening people
into handing over their possessions, the former will be prosecuted.
Michael Dell won't.

So, while I certainly don't mind successful people at all, I despise
people who are bullying others, whether it's by physical or financial
strength. In this case, that's what Michael Dell does. IMHO, of course.

So, please give Paul a hand. Don't make my opinions and poor diplomatic
skills rub off on him. He's in desperate need of support. Money, of
course, but even your signature at the petition.

Cheers,
D
Click to expand...

Paul Dell is a sympathetic guy, but Dell's lawyers are not being nasty for
the hell of it. The law gives them no choice. Trademark law says the owner
of a mark must VIGOROUSLY defend it against any infringer. To do otherwise
risks loss of the trademark.
Dell is in the computer business, most of which they do on the Web. It is
not a giant step to assume that some of their customers could be confused by
another "Dell" site that is in a somewhat related business. Thus they MUST
"vigorously" defend their name. If they don't, and a real infringement crops
up later -- cheap Chinese computers branded "Dell Plus," for example, the
courts could look at their earlier lack of vigor and decide Dell hadn't
adequately defended its turf and had surrendered the trademark.
If Paul Dell grew chickens or designed swimwear, "Dell-icious-Eggs.com" or
"PaulDellThongs.com" would in all likelihood be safe domain names, and ones
even Michael Dell's attorneys wouldn't bother.
But an ever-present nightmare for corporate attorneys is what happened to
"band aid" and "aspirin," both of which once were valuable trademarks but
which fell into common use, wiping out the rights of the owners of those
marks. And that is why "Xerox" fires off a legal notice every time a
journalist uses "xerox" as a verb. They don't really expect the journalists
to care; they just want to have a copy of the letter in their files, to
demonstrate that they are defending their intellectual property.

Alex
 
That is true, but Gateway, Dell, and a couple of other giants have used
similar tactics in the past, even in cases where there was no relationship
at all to the products that they sell.

I think it is quite often the insanity of over zelous lawyers that start
these things, but then company CEO goes along with it until the publicity
gets so bad that they are forced to back down by public and press attention.

I don't recall the exact details, but the most rediculous one was back
around 1999-2000, when Gateway (who used to use black and white cows as
their main logo) sent a Texas Guernsey cow rancher a threatening letter
about his cows infringing on the Gateway trademark. They immediately backed
down once it hit the newswires, but the damage had already been done.

IMO, this is a similar case - Dell has a lot more to lose here than they can
possibly ever gain, yet they seem to be intent on persuing it, no matter how
stupid it is. Dell has absolutely nothing to gain here, yet the publicity
has already hurt them - and it might get worse - I heard that it made CNN
last night.
 
Whether or not his life is being ruined is totally beside the point.

How is Dell running over people with a bulldozer any different than your
local government imminent domain running over people with a bulldozer to
take their property?

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This kind of attitude makes me sick. I'm not sure why people are so
quick to make a villain out of anyone who is successful. Why does it
follow that because Michael Dell is worth a lot of money that he must
be greedy and uncaring?
Click to expand...

Well, the fact that the name and website have almost no relationship to the
products of Dell, yet Dell is suing them for some $million+ might indicate
some insensivity there.
 
I bet he does now - supposedly the story made it to CNN last night. If so,
the pebble got bigger.
 
First of all, the website in question has almost no relationship to Dell,
except that both involve computers (and what doesn't these days?). The name
is not even close.

And, this works both ways. Some recent headlines:

Dell sued over bait-and-switch charges....
Class-Action Lawsuit Accuses Dell of Bait-and-Switch Tactics...
30 Muslim workers fired for praying on job at Dell ...
A Williamson County District Court judge effectively put an end to Dell
Computer Corp.'s lawsuit against its former ad agency, forcing the company
to face the music in a New York court of law.

As a preliminary TRO hearing comes and goes, Dell's attorney becomes highly
excitable in Court as he insists CompAmerica.com is defaming Dell by
hypertexting links to 3rd party websites all over the internet that contain
allegations characterized as anti-Dell customer comments.....

Dell claimed that by pointing links on "the DellKillers.com" website to such
sites as "ihatedell.net" and Google searches for such expressions as "Dell
S*cks" and "Don't Buy Dell", which return tens of hundreds of websites and
pages of Anti-Dell venomous commentary, was "libelous" when used for
commerce....

RALEIGH-Carolina Journal and the North Carolina Press Association filed a
lawsuit Tuesday to force the state Department of Commerce to release all
public records involved in a reported $242 million incentives package the
state offered to Dell Computer Corp. of Austin, Texas....

etc etc etc.. Dell is living in a glass house, perhaps it is time they sued
themselves...
 
Well yes, but..

Dell is an AMERICAN business, which in France is 2.97 strikes against them
already.
 
Hi,

As I think many of you know already, Dell Computers are on their way to
crush a guy who makes web sites. Why? Because his name happens to be
Paul Dell, and his site is consequently http://www.dellwebsites.com/

That Dell Computers don't make web sites at all doesn't worry them a
bit. They just do as most multinational corporations; steam rolling
people as they see fit and using their wealth to do it. They have sued
Paul for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Michael Dell, the founder and chairman of Dell, is personally worth
about USD 18 billion which is more than the GDP of most countries in the
world. Obviously, he couldn't care less if he's ruining the life of Paul
as long as he makes a few extra $.

Please take a close look at the sites below. Read why Paul need help.
Sign the petition. Maybe by a sweater to support him.

http://help-paul-dell.com/
http://pauldell.blogspot.com/

Cheers,
Danny
Click to expand...
I'll bet Paul Dell would sell the domain for less than Dell is
spending on attorneys.

Are they going to take on http://www.dells.com/ ?
Andy Asberry recommends NewsGuy but deplores the crappy spam line they tag on.
 
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