Imitation domain name into a new trap for start-up companies

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Few of the industry's malicious competition can be as fast and convenient as the Internet-when an enterprise can pass its brand to consumers without physical products and channels, only domain names, product names and content, its competitive barriers are actually low enough for any intentions to replicate easily.

This is an open secret, and if people have forgotten the battle between the two SouFun (soufun.com and sofang.com) a few years ago, now the lawsuit proves it again. May 20, one of the largest domestic community web site (kaixin001.com, hereinafter referred to as "Happy Net") announced formally to the court lawsuit, sued Thousand Oak under the Network (kaixin.com, hereinafter called "Thousand Oak Happy") to carry out unfair competition, request thousand oak Group to stop using "Happy net" This name, the public apology and compensation for 10 million yuan.

For most people, it is morally easy to judge the right or wrong. Happy Net March 2008 has been founded, when it in six months after the "competition for Parking" and other web games swept the country, Thousand oak happy just bought more simple and easy to remember domain name kaixin.com, and also named "Happy Net", according to its in Beijing municipal administration of industry and commerce for the record information, the company called "True Happy Net." Two a happy net of similar degree enough to confuse a lot of "happy happy" in the name of the netizens to the audio-visual, some users even see the news about the lawsuit before it suddenly dawned: I said I play a happy web how and other people's different? The effect of this truth and falsehood is clearly what thousand oak would like to see.

Although the moral gain of many support, but the trademark of happy Net has not yet been registered, which makes it with unfair competition to bring the lawsuit to obtain legal support is a certain degree of difficulty. According to the Beijing State Sheng law firm lawyer Liu Mingjun introduced, if the net has a trademark or copyright in one of the "trademark infringement" or "copyright infringement" of the success of the lawsuit is very high. But now both sides did not get the trademark, happy net prosecution "unfair competition" is set up mainly depends on the court to judge two factors, one is whether the net is a well-known products, one is in the web design of thousand Oak is suspected of plagiarism. These two aspects of the definition are relatively vague, the final outcome depends on both sides of the evidence.

In fact, the limitations of the trademark law in the Internet area are already obvious. The determination of the site domain name has become more and more like an art, not only with the user is convenient memory, can bring good brand image, but also related to whether to leave an opportunity for speculators. But no matter how careful, it is still difficult to avoid plagiarism. An internet entrepreneur says to global entrepreneurs that most websites apply for a trademark when they are created, but that it takes a 2.5 of the time to get to it, and that it can be extended in exceptional cases, and that the application of copyright to the Copyright office is complicated and expensive, The continuous revision and changes of Internet products make it difficult to apply for copyright in some kind of solidified layout. While it's hard to protect yourself with legal weapons, the rise of internet companies is much faster than in traditional industries, and replication costs are much lower, meaning that a website may become famous in a year or even a short time, and then it will be too late to acquire a trademark to face the imitation of countless imitators and a handful of malicious competitors who are naked. The experience of happy Net is the best footnote of this situation. In the third round of amendments to the trademark law, which has already begun to be prepared, the call for changes to the current Internet situation is particularly strong.

For happy NET, the good news is that its lawsuit is not without precedent to learn from. Similarly, the 2007 Hangzhou famous community Forum, "19 Floor" (19floor.net) without a trademark on the premise of the domain name, page design and content are very similar to the "fake 19 Floor" (19floor.com) to the unfair competition for the prosecution and finally win. "19 Floor", one of the acting lawyers, Zhejiang June ' an century law firm lawyer Cheng said to global entrepreneur, this is called "Domestic network domain name Victory first case" success, is the registration time before the "false 19 Floor" 4 years, and the latter signs of plagiarism is very obvious, more importantly, After six or seven years of cultivation, the "19 floor" in the Jiangsu has been very high-profile, "even if there is no registered trademark, but its popularity has given its right to use this name."

Comparatively speaking, happy Net wants to win lawsuit more difficult than "19 floor". Whether the dispute is hype or activism, it reminds people that laws must keep pace with the times, and that the already chaotic Chinese Internet industry needs more self-discipline.

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