[912] in linux-announce channel archive
Spurious claim over the name duracell
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Computer Society Mail X400)
Tue Aug 15 19:47:32 1995
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 95 09:17 GMT
From: cssoc@sunacm.swan.ac.uk (Computer Society Mail X400)
To: bsalwen@duracell.e-mail.com
Cc: P.Brady@swansea.ac.uk, admin@duracell.e-mail.com,
board@duracell.e-mail.com, legal@duracell.e-mail.com,
linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu, linux-announce@vger.rutgers.edu,
mnemonic@eff.org, postmaster@duracell.e-mail.com,
staff@duracell.e-mail.com, staff@sunacm.swan.ac.uk
[This is sent to the Linux lists because the machine that duracell are
apparently causing hassle over is ftp.linux.org.uk, so its possible they
may cause it to be shutdown for a while. ]
Note: This is carbon copied to various people, including the EFF and onto
relevant usenet groups. I am assuming this email was genuine. If not then
please ignore the message and we will work with your legal authorities to enable
you to hunt down and take action against those who sent it.
The letter is below the contact info to allow people to express their opinion
of this action.
[Contact info:
The original claim [not reproduced for copyright reasons came from
bsalwen@duracell.e-mail.com] he is the only contact I have. If people have
senior duracell email addresses please make them available. If you are a
shareholder please use your rights to get written answers from the board. If
you have the 1-800 and FAX numbers even better]
The original letter claimed that one user who has the nickname and thus
a web page with one mention of the name 'duracell' in brackets indicating
his user name was a violation of their trademark. In fact they go on to
explicitly claim that the duracell name
"can not be used without the expressed written consent of
Duracell Inc" [Quote but less than 15% of the message...]
On which basis I strongly urge everyone with the word duracell in their
DNS servers removes it immediately - even if the internic has written
permission, does your DNS server have written permission to hold a copy.
------------------------------------
Dear Sir,
I was disgusted to see you making these claims about the duracell name.
Trademark law has strict bounds. You claim that the duracell name cannot be
used without the express written consent of Duracell inc.
Pray how then can:
o Anybody email you without using the name in the email message. If you
wish further replies please send us written formal permission to use
the name for this purpose.
o How is your name in the DNS. Does every internet domain name server
require permission from you to hold the record. If so I hope they will
all be making you disappear from the name caches very fast and vanish
from the internet.
We have made an initial review of your claim. One user who has a home page under
his nickname 'Duracell' we are informed is not a trademark violation. We have
duly notified the student union legal officer.
Before we can even consider any action we need a formal request stating which
precise articles of UK trademark law you are invoking from an officer of the
company duly authorised by the board of the company to act in this
capacity in order to enable us to duly verify your claim was made by an
authorised officer and is not a fake.
Alan
This document may be reproduced as-is without fee or restriction and further
dissemination is encouraged.
Fight corporate use of legal threats against the people
