Our post talked about EasyGroup sending a C & D to a dating site operating in the UK called, EasyDate.
The company owned and operated Easy Date and operated some other dating sites as well.
Today comes the news that Easy Date has bowed to the pressure of Easy Group and went ahead and bought the domain and site Cupid.com for £4.4m British Pounds or somewhere near $7 Million Dollars, and changed the name of the company from Easy Date to Cupid.com
Although it seemed the company had some sort of management agreement at the time on Cupid.com, the sale was completed in late September.
Of course this purchase price was for an operating site(s) not just the domain, but its also another example of how the big boys are attempting to enforce partial trademarks using every day words against companies operating completely different businesses.
Michael, what would you do if that happened to you? would you initiate a suit ? Wait for them to act on their c & d ? Negotiate something ? Would you make the matter public to give them a bad rep ?
This is a remarkable combination of events. A threat for a UDRP that results in a multi-million purchase. I wonder if the owners of Cupid.com will now start harassing every other Cupid domain in turn.
Airlines and dating are not related at all. When stuff like this happens it hurts everyone. If you can’t register generic terms then why don’t all the small guys just give up and let the corporations rule everything. It is pretty pathetic.
Cupid.com is much nicer domain than EasyDate.com but its a shame when these big corporate twats have the money to bully or drag someone through the (over burdened) courts spending thousands in legal fees just to muscle the smaller guys out based on over-reaching Trade Marks.
I guess Stelios the Greek thinks he invented the english word easy – numpty
What’s next, Stelios suing Orange.com because they have an orange website which is confusingly similar to their brand 😉
JS
If I think I had a great case which this one appeared to be I would fight it.
These companies are UK based and don’t know what the court system is there, but if I had this situation I would file preemptively.
I don’t see how you can operate a business while waiting for the hammer to fall
The sale was for 4.4 million pounds ($6.9 million). Cupid.com generated revenue of 1.3 million pounds and earnings of 500,000 pounds in 2009.
“Easy” is used in many company names. It’s so sad to see things like this happen. Maybe the company decides to buy cupid.com with other considerations but use this as a public reason to give the easy group a bad rep.
Mike – my last comment has been lost in spamland (I had included a link)
Gazzip – So what if Stelios (check out the .com) is Greek? As it happens, he does own the Easy domain and trademark. He’s also a philanthropist.
Whether or not a C&D constitutes a valid enforcement of a tm right, that’s evident: the EasyDate company changed their name.
Gazzip – So what if Stelios (check out the .com) is Greek? As it happens, he does own the Easy domain and trademark. He’s also a philanthropist.
Its easy (oops, maybe I should use that word) for me to say Stelios the Greek than say Stelios Haji-Ioannou or Στέλιος Χατζηιωάννου. 😉 …nothing personal against Greeks, I lived in Cyprus for 3 years many moons ago.
“Whether or not a C&D constitutes a valid enforcement of a tm right, that’s evident: the EasyDate company changed their name.”
There are about 50 Trade Marks if you search the word “easy” and most are not owned by him, he did not invent the word Easy, far from it.
But yes, he does own a TM for easy.com
Word Mark EASY.COM
Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: on-line retail store services featuring food products, health and beauty aids, electronics, housewares, appliances and clothing. FIRST USE: 20031000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20031000
Do you see anything there about the Trade Mark relating to anything about Dating? I don’t
There is a Live Trade Mark for EasyDates and its NOT owned by Him.
Word Mark EASYDATES
Goods and Services IC 045. US 100 101. G & S: Internet based social networking, introduction, and dating services. FIRST USE: 20030101. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20030608
The guy is acting like everything with the word “Easy” in it should be his if and when he wants it, although I suspect it’s his lawyers who are the ones being so dickish about it, my pet hate is bullies and (IMO) these guys are taking the piss.
Not everyone can afford to fight in the courts with people like that so in the end they often get what they want.
This is ridiculous but that’s my opinion and I don’t expect you to agree with it, you have yours, I have mine, no problemo here 🙂
“Mike – my last comment has been lost in spamland (I had included a link)”
If you make the link live it gets delayed/checked before its posted.
Gazzip – I’m overly sensitive about Greek entrepreneurs as I’m Greek myself 😉 Thank you for the clarification; it’s a hard to pronounce name. I guess that’s why he got Stelios dot com as a personal web site.
About trademarks, it comes down to whether the argument leads to a business decision in a manner unrelated to the pressure being exerted.
Mike and all, it’s important perhaps to clarify that the domain in question is EasyDateGroup dot com and not EasyDate. This makes a difference, as the ‘Stelios’ company is Easy Group, hence the source of the problem. On another note, I wonder what the future bestows now to EasyDate dot com (Marchex) and the dot co uk variant.
I’m overly sensitive about Greek entrepreneurs as I’m Greek myself
No worries, I personally prefer this one 😉 theopaphitis.com, A damn site easier for me to say too 🙂
“I wonder what the future bestows now to EasyDate dot com (Marchex) and the dot co uk variant.”
…a legal battle or a huge sale 😉
They picked up flirt.com too