Time for these folk to ring up a lawyer. Free advice is worth about as much 
as you
pay for it.

   g

What was that quote? Was it "Better get a lawyer son. Better get a good 
one."  ?




At 01:32 PM 8/4/99 +1000, AUSCITY wrote:
>Anyone care to express a considered opinion on this scenario? Or perhaps you
>know of a similar case (with oucome)  you care to share.
>
>Big company 'W-Dog Pty Ltd' trademarks its name, 'W-Dog'.  They register a
>domain name of w-dog.com and w-dog.net
>
>On the other side of Australia, a new small business is established and
>calls itself (Reg Business Name) wdog.com.au . wdog.com.au registers the
>domain www.wdog.com.au This business had not seen the W-Dog product because
>it was not publically available or in the marketplace. However it turns out
>that both organisations have much the same idea.
>
>Big company 'W-Dog' cries foul play and threatens legal action against
>wdog.com.au for breach of trademark.
>
>wdog.com.au has had its product in the market place for many months. Even
>though W-Dog registered its trademark before wdog.com.au was established,
>W-Dog still does not have its product in the market place nor will they
>provide proof of its existance. However their trademark details are written
>so generalised that it could pretty well tie up the whole industry. There is
>still no publically available information on its specific product.
>Apparently, W-Dog says its all very confidential. Plus the domain name of
>www.w-dog.com.au is still available. They have not registered it!
>
>QUESTION: Should wdog.com.au be prevented from using the domain wdog.com.au
>? Reason being breach of trademark.
>
>Regards,
>Chas Cleland, Manager, AUSCITY
>auscity§auscity.com.au     www.auscity.com.au
>Phone: +61 3 5561 3077
>
>
>
>--
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