If E-Bay sued E-Bid... who'd win?

Bard

Ebay have already set up their Irish driven site but have had to put it at www.ebayireland.com ( which redirects to http://pages.ebay.com/ie/index.html ) instead of www.ebay.ie - because the ebay.ie domain is owned by Lucilla Hyland of EBid (see http://www.domainregistry.ie/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?whois=ebid.ie and http://www.domainregistry.ie/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?whois=ebay.ie ). Hyland has an Irish company name registered ("Ebay Ltd.") in order to qualify for the domain.

Anyway- on to my question(s) :

1.
Isn't it a bit sneaky and underhanded of E-Bid to secure that domain and deny E-Bay what would be the natural domain name for their Irish operation?

2.
What do you think the outcome would be of E-Bay mounting a legal challenge to gain control of the domain ebay.ie?

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Bard

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Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.

Hobbes

From what I gather the .ie domain is normally very well behaved and don't like name whores, so they would have to show they were using it.

Winning Hand

1. I hate cyber squatters, they're the 21st century "money for nothing types", or else they take a domain and use it for something completely different (different to what I want at the time )

2. I can see E-Bay winning this, if not solely due to their size.

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Hobbes:
From what I gather the .ie domain is normally very well behaved and don't like name whores, so they would have to show they were using it. </font>

They're not using it though... have a look at www.ebay.ie - it's been like that for some time... ( a welcome message and FTP instructions... basic "your new site is here but has nothing in it" page)

Hobbes

Ooh a name whore. I would say eBay wouldn't have a problem then.

sceptre

During the Budweiser/Budvar case in the eighties, Bud tried to use the fact that UK people were bringing Bud America beer home from their holliers as evidence that Bud America were effectively already using the name in the UK.

Trademark and brand name law hasn't really changed in ireland since we forced off the yoke so ebay could launch a case based on the Irish people familiar with the ebay name and people already using their UK service here. Ebid would be in a strong position had they actually been using the name (or probably even redirecting the site properly) so I would be of the opinion that ebay could just take it in a court case.

Plus as Hobbes pointed out, the .ie domain admins don't like cybersquatters so they might just well transfer it without a court battle (but doing that would lead to a court battle emenating from ebid so we're back to my first point)

Just noticed Bard's mentioning of Ebay Ltd (Irl) - if they're not trading that can probably be told to bugger off (and eventually they'll be struck off the companies register too if ebay ltd (Irl) don't do something with their time)

[This message has been edited by sceptre (edited 26-07-2001).]

Red Moose

When people domain squat usuallu I am with the "fair use" side. As long as profit is not being made off the companies brand then it should be OK.

But in this case, E-Bid clearly ripped off the name anyway. E-Bay *where* first. Now, trademark issues aside, if E-Bid bought E-bay's name it was really stupid, especially if they don't hand it over for the £70 it cost or something, because that's just being a prat.

The registrar for Irish names also should be held responsible. E-Bay was around for over 12 months before E-Bid was a scratch in Hyland's pants. It's a pretty massively recognised Internet brand.

Perhaps it's also time for a .org.ie, .com.ie and so on?

sceptre

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Red Moose:
Perhaps it's also time for a .org.ie, .com.ie and so on?
</font>

Yup.