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Ear to the Ground

UTube.com vs. YouTube.com

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Posted on Nov 6, 2006
Utube lawsuit
From The Smoking Gun

In what may be the most brazenly frivolous lawsuit of all time, an Ohio pipe company whose website, utube.com, has been crippled by Web surfers looking for YouTube.com, is suing for damages, and is demanding that YouTube cede its domain name to the pipe company.

  • It almost makes us wistful for George Bush’s 2000 push for tort reform....

  • The Smoking Gun:

    An Ohio pipe company whose website, utube.com, has been crippled by misdirected traffic seeking youtube.com, has sued the online video giant, claiming that the confusion has injured its business. In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment charges that the web address confusion has led to more than 70,000 visitors daily arriving at the pipe firm’s web site looking for videos. Along with increased bandwidth costs (now at $2500 monthly, up from just $100),

    Plantiff has suffered injury to its ability to conduct business, to its reputation, to its trademark rights, and has been deprived of its right to the quiet enjoyment of its domain name. Plantiff has lost its kindgdom with its domain

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    By A_B, November 6, 2006 at 3:40 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    “In what may be the most brazenly frivolous lawsuit of all time...”

    How can you say that? Did you even read the complaint?

    What if Digg.com decided to put up TruthDigg.com and the traffic crushed your servers so you couldn’t keep this site up? Would you just brush it off as your tough luck, or would you think, “WTF? We were here first. They picked a name that is similar to ours and now we can’t do anything.”

    What if people that Truthdig.com was jumping on the Truthdigg.com bandwagon and called you all sorts of names and sent you all sorts of nasty emails? What if you got a bad reputation because you were erroneously thought to be the junior user?

    What if Digg.com’s new site was a porn site? Through massive publicity, all of a sudden, Truthdig.com, the senior user, becomes associated with pornography.

    Wouldn’t Truthdig.com object? Wouldn’t you guys say, “wait a minute. We were here first, and while we are in different areas, you guys can’t take a confusingly similar name.” Etc.

    I don’t think you can call a company who has had their website up since 1996, and now have a hard time keeping it up, “frivolous” for filing a lawsuit to protect their business.

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    By harald hardrada, November 6, 2006 at 2:15 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    americans hold in contempt any business that produces goods

    show them a business that produces frivolity of passing fame & they celebrate

    both political parties are doing all they can to squeeze out small business & the middle class—republicans grant favors to large corporations & to the wealthy while democrats grant favors to special interest groups—either way the ends are the same: shaft the folks who create goods-producing jobs

    Report this

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