Palm Inc., the company behind the popular personal digital
assistants, appears to have made the mistake of launching a new
portal called MyPalm without first obtaining a suitable domain
name. Subsequent to announcing the name of its new service, it has
written to the owner of MyPalm.com labelling him a cybersquatter
and demanding that he transfer the name.
Dominic Hulewicz of Windsor, England, registered MyPalm.com in
December 1999, almost a year before Palm decided on the name for
its new portal. He uses the domain name for e-mail only, originally
for his Palm PDA, and he has posted a web page to clarify that his
site is not the home of the MyPalm portal. The domain name
MyPalm.org appears to be operated as an unofficial Palm user group
in Germany. The name MyPalm.net is apparently registered to a New
Hampshire individual, Sangita Goplani. Palm Inc.’s service is
currently operating from Palm.net.
According to TheRegister.co.uk, Hulewicz has received a Cease
and Desist order from Palm Inc. However, Hulewicz is reported as
saying that he has never attempted to sell his domain name or
solicit any offers for it and is refusing to transfer the name.
John MacKenzie of OUT-LAW.COM said:
"If Palm do try to take this further, it
will be interesting to see how the courts treat Mr Hulewicz. The
courts should have some sympathy for him, as there is a general
rule that you cannot protect a name retrospectively. Equally, there
seems to be no confusion created, as he makes it clear on his web
site that the site is not Palm Inc. and gives a link to their site.
Confusion and competition are likely to be the central elements of
any claim that Palm are going to make."
