EBay threatens ShmeeBay

[Link14716]

Originally Posted by mholtum

IMO, if you can't be bothered you might as well just take down your site now. You will need to do some research and most likely spend some time defending your site and domain name.. If not time, then you will be investing $$$ in your defense. Just a thought.

kall is not the thread starter.

[noppid]

I'm on anyone's side that tells a big corp to shove it! Good Luck!

[steven s]

Originally Posted by yoyoyoyo

not quite. Go to http://paypalsucks.com and read their legal justification and about their successful legal battle over the domain name, the use of the trademarked name, as well as the logo. Also check out these other sites: # PissOnEbay, BuckCitibank.com!, IntgoldSucks.com, etc..

The difference is you go to those sites and it is clear just by the look that it is not a corporate site. They did not use a color scheme to appear as if it was the site they are discussing.

[AN-net]

i would not try to fight eBay on this. They are the largest online auction site in existence and will easily crush you because they have the money for the long run. eBay will most likely get your hosting unplugged where ever you go even before a trial starts because web hosts do not want to get in the middle of a legal/trademark war. to webhosts legal battles = hurt of sales. So just some common sense would be drop the name(not the idea) and just make a new name.

However, if your going to fight them on this try pulling the old Mike Rowe move by getting the media's attention on this and that might put public pressure on them to stop or at least give you compensation for the name. Mike turned out with an Xbox and loads of other stuff from Microsoft so maybe you can get something from eBay. Also as said above, find resources to back your claim up such as court decisions(even though there are few on the internet still) and become knowledgeable on the area of trademarks and the internet.

[Johnny]

well i agree with 1996 328ti colors do make a difference on making it so it doesnt seem like part of a corporate website. But then again you cant have copyright on any color.

But im not sure if it maters but you made it seem like shmeebay is affilated with ebay in a way that you stated that shmeebay works with ebays union and will help them if needed which really isnt a good idea, but what you should of done is just say its a Ebay Community where we discuss about scammers, fraud and about a particular item that you love or hate.

also what you should write at the bottom of the page someplace by the copyright.

"Ebay is a registered trademarks of Ebay, Inc. We are not affiliated with Ebay."

[AN-net]

Originally Posted by Johnny

also what you should write at the bottom of the page someplace by the copyright.

"Ebay is a registered trademarks of Ebay, Inc. We are not affiliated with Ebay."

yes that would be a very good start

[yinyang]

well, the webhost contacted me and is contacting their lawyer to gauge their liabilities and before they pull the site. i've also found, through yoyoyoyo's provided info, that they were unable to stop this site www.pissoneBay.com . but then again, these guys may be hosted in russia.

my whole world is full of lawyers, so i am having a trademark attorney, a firstamendment specialist and my cousin who is the deputy attorney general for california (anti-trust) division take a look at it. again!

but i still find it somewhat sneaky, yet brilliant, on their end to not contact me directly but go straight to the webhost. i guess they bank on them bringing me down, then me setting back up somewhere else, and the new host bringing me back down, etc. and eventually me running out of money or giving up.

[Johnny]

Originally Posted by yinyang

well, the webhost contacted me and is contacting their lawyer to gauge their liabilities and before they pull the site. i've also found, through yoyoyoyo's provided info, that they were unable to stop this site www.pissoneBay.com . but then again, these guys may be hosted in russia.

my whole world is full of lawyers, so i am having a trademark attorney, a firstamendment specialist and my cousin who is the deputy attorney general for california (anti-trust) division take a look at it. again!

but i still find it somewhat sneaky, yet brilliant, on their end to not contact me directly but go straight to the webhost. i guess they bank on them bringing me down, then me setting back up somewhere else, and the new host bringing me back down, etc. and eventually me running out of money or giving up.

the only reason they contacted the host and not you is because you are not the owner of the server, you are just renting space from your host. So your host is held reliable on what is on the servers unless you own your Private Servers then they would just contact you instead.

Its just about the same way when renting your own apartment. If neighbors are complaining about a tenant then everyone would be going after the owner of the place house so they can do something about it without fighting with the tenant that is causing the problem.

[yoyoyoyo]

I am glad you found the info I posted useful, and I hope it helps you stop eBay from pulling the plug. I do think that a discalimer stating that you are not in anyway affiliated with eBay, etc. is a great idea. Maybe even make it a javascript that only pops up once per session (or is cookie controlled) making people click "agree" on a disclaimer box. That way eBay would have a lot less room to talk if you shove the fact that you are NOT eBay in people's faces. Also be sure to document all of the hassles, etc., and post info about it on your site

[AWS]

Keep up the fight. You can recoup the monies spent to defend your rights. If it gets that far where you are served with papers make sure you counter sue for loss of revenue.