Utube Sues YouTube

An anonymous reader writes "From The Age article: Universal Tube, which sells used machines that make tubes, has said it has lost business because customers have had trouble accessing its site." So now Utube is suing YouTube seeking a cease and desist on the youtube domain. (I wonder if they think Google's pockets might be deeper that the previous owners'.) This again raises the problems of domain names colliding across different industries and countries, and reminds me of the etoys/etoy tussle a few years back. Should domain name simply be exempt from trademark legislation in all countries or is it a legit thing to fight for?"

Comments

Re:Icons are incorrect for story

[drawfour]

Did the World Wildlife Fund sue the World Wrestling Federation? No, they simply put a link on their site pointing people to the other site if they mistakingly stumbled across it. utube and youtube should just do the same.

Is simple fact-checking really that hard? Try reading this wikipedia article about the world wildlife fund, and be sure to read the section labeled "Lawsuit". Yes, the World Wildlife Fund did sue the World Wrestling Federation, leading to the name change to World Wrestling Entertainment. It happened in British courts.

Interview with UTube owner and CEO

[indian_rediff]

The following interview with Ralph Girkins, the owner of Universal Tubes, was broadcast on Marketplace - a segment in National Public Radio http://www.npr.org/. A transcript is available at http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/10/1 3/PM200610134.html. Makes for interesting readin and definitely changes many of the assumptions that people are making regarding the kind of business he is trying to run. And you can definitely glean his frustration from his comments, at the lack of cooperation from Google/Youtube. So, why not go the American way? Sue sue sue!