I wanted to see if anything similar has happened to any other hosts. If so, where does the host stand in some thing like this??
We host Go2simon.com and Go2lance.com . Not a big account in any way. But my problem is this.

GO2ONLINE.COM is telling us we must shut this site down and remove it from our systems or they will try and take us to court.

Ok now look at http://www.GO2ONLINE.COM now look at http://www.Go2simon.com too. 100% different sites, not even same ideas really.

But the problem is this with GO2ONLINE.COM they say these "Domain Names, and any other domain names you have reserved in the "go2_____" or "goto____" format, to Go2 Systems."

I see their point but at the same time I don't. This would mean whoever owns hosting.com could say I own any thing "hosting____.com

What would you do for your customer if GO2ONLINE.COM e-mailed you??


Here is what go2.com sent us.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward this email to the appropriate person in your company.

You have a customer that has registered go2lance and go2simon.

If your customer does not deactivate the names immediately and transfer the
domains to Go2 in the timeline set forth in the below email letter from me
to Mr. Perkins, your company will be included in any litigation that occurs.

Your company is hereby put on notice as to the infringement violation,
including search engine results which are evidenced in the attached ppt
file.

To the extent your company contributed in any way to the infringement, your
company will be held liable. To the extent that the infringement continues,
you will be held to have intentionally acted, which results in much more
exposure.

Please contact me and Mr. Perkins at your earliest convenience. Thank you.
Jay (my contact information is below)

I'd ignore it.

Not saying that's what you should do. It's just what I would do.

I'd ignore it too. Cost them far more to take you to court than they would get out of this and I basicly don't see on what ground they can take you or your customers to court. Do they have a trademark on the go2simon and go2lance domain names? I don't think so... This goes to court = go2online loose, at least that's my opinion. It's not like I'm a member of the jury :D

And if they're pissed about this, why don't they sue all those people with go.to/yoursite URLS. It basicly comes down to the same thing :eek:

Very good point on the go.to/yoursite if they call me i will make sure to bring that...LOL


Now i forgot this part and think it makes this even better.. Ever one knows goto.com right. Well they changed there name from goto.com to Overture.com. They said they are why they did that not that goto.com sold out or any thing like that..

Now when you got to "goto.com" you see this little message..


To meet legal obligations, GoTo is now Overture. Our new Web Address is Overture.com.
You will be automatically redirected to our new homepage in 10 seconds.
Please remember to bookmark the new page, as we will no longer redirect traffic from www.goto.com as of July 1, 2002.


So it really makes me think are these guys out to just get every thing to do with there name. I think this is very bad if this is what they are doing and should be sued them self..

That's just plain sad, to think goto.com would change their name for the loosers at http://www.GO2ONLINE.COM. I wonder who was established first and who has the most traffic (like that last question is difficult to answer ;) go2online who?)

this is tricky ground. theoretically your completely fine and you should go tell em to mate with camels. they may very well have a copyright on go2 etc but look at the following situation
polo mints
vw polo cars
polo shirts
all completely unconected all using the same name, why different markets, totally not affecting each other. same as you. if you were hosting a site which said go2 are pants and you shouldnt use them then maybe youd be in the wrong. if you were selling the same product as them then maybe they would have a case.since thats not the case they dont have a leg to stand on.
the same thing happened in the uk with easyjet, they tried to come on the big i am with a local car rental firm called easyrent or something similar and they took it to court and all their fancy lawyers couldnt stop em getting laughed out of court.

I remember a story just like this...it was about a year ago.

Company A has the domain name www.demo265hosting.com
Company B has the domain name www.demo265toys.com

Company A emails Company B and says they will sue if the domain is not handed over to them.

Guess What?

In court...Company A lost the lawsuit and was ordered to pay Company B's legal fees and damages. :cool:

I would consult a lawer just to make sure though.....hrmm trying to remember the companies involved in the articles i read...oh heck ... ;)

I know, why don't you just aks Jeeves, he knows everyting :D

you really do need a legal consult tho, you dont need a team of multi million pound lawyers, one half decent one will do, long as he can read and has watched ally mcbeal a few times. you just need someone to formalise things a little. make sure alls fair and above board. but dont buckle, they are in the wrong. its not like the burstnet hostgui thing. this is a totally different kettle of fish.

P.S. Why are the registrars selling these names if somebody has all the rights to them, just wouldn't make sense to me.

Yea i was thinking about "its not like the burstnet hostgui thing. this is a totally different kettle of fish." when this came in but then i was like this is no where close... This is some big bully trying to push all the little guys over and out..

I just can't stand around and let this happen to our users.. I do bleave in standing up for them if i see a need and i think this is one..

Originally posted by Vortech
What would you do for your customer if GO2ONLINE.COM e-mailed you??

Vortech, don't take this too lightly.
You may -or may NOT- be safe. It all depends on whether they own the trademark or not...
All I can tell you is that you do not want to be part of a trademark dispute, because when such a thing happens, for instance on a claim of image delution, the ISP has a lot to lose (up to $1 million).
This is for instance what happened for Gucci vs [I don't remember what ISP]. If memory serves, the ISP was sued on the ground of willingly helping another company mess with Gucci's image. The case is quite similar since I don't think that Gucci was actually suing for counterfeiting their products, but rather a trademark infringement.

I'm not exactly sure why goto changed their name, but this hints at it: http://news.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-7092251-0.html

I'm sorry, but there have been other cases where companies with part of a domain name have tried to muscle the entire internet into giving up their version. It simply won't work.

GO2ONLINE.COM, go2lance, and go2simon don't seem even remotely similar to me, and I'd like to know what grouds they feel it is. My guess is that they have no grounds and wouldn't be able to win anything. If they filed a lawsuit, there is a good chance they'd be forced to pay the people's legal fees they are suing (based on some other cases I've read about).

I'm not a lawyer, don't even play one on t.v., but this one seems like a bogus attempt at controlling everything beyond go2_____.whatever, and it isn't going to work.

Forward their URL to goto.com (as go2 is pretty darn close to goto and that is what they show on their pages). They seem like internet slime to me. never hurts to ask a lawyer, but I personally wouldn't worry about it until you get a letter from a judge ordering you to stop hosting the domain. "Because they want you to" isn't a legal reason, nor is "because it might be a violation".

I'd email them back stating that you'd comply with any judement against your client. Something to that effect, but again, shove it through a lawyer to not only make sure that's what they suggest, but if so, to make it all legal-like...

Chicken Said:
Forward their URL to goto.com (as go2 is pretty darn close to goto and that is what they show on their pages). They seem like internet slime to me.

This is kind of what i was talking about. They say they MADE goto.com give up there domain and all rights. I find this so hard to beleve.. But then i got to goto.com and they kind of make it sound true..

Guess i have to send this over to legal now that sucks.. :( These guys are ass's and I think should be sued..

I found this article:
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article/0,,12_496031,00.html
which said Go2 Systems "threatened a trademark infringement suit," but also found this article:
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-272795.html?legacy=cnet
which says Goto.com sold go2.com to Go2 Systems. I never found anything that said Go2 Systems actually filed a trademark infringement lawsuit (I'm not sure how they could, considering Goto.com was around first).

I'm not a lawyer, so don't believe anything I say, but as far as I know e-mail is not an accepted method of serving legal notice (I'm assuming they e-mailed you the threat, you didn't say so in your first post). The fact that they didn't send you a certified letter means they probably know themselves that they don't have a legal leg to stand on at this point (JUST SPECULATION!).

Well they do have a registered trademark on go2® which I'm not going to argue, but from the link I provided it said, "In April, [GOTO.COM] sold rights to the domain name Go2.com to Go2 Systems, a wireless location-based directory and information services format." Buying the rights to the names may have been cheaper than litigation, but still, I question whether having the trademark for go2® enables them to get anything and everything go2___ . Seems like an ebay/bidbay thing almost. Let us know what pans out.

I've been go2net.com for a meta search engine for awhile. Is this site owned by go2 systems? I don't think it is.

I visted the uspto's web site, and they do seem to have a trademark on "go2" in almost every single goods and services category. Still, it's hard for me to believe that they can possibly own the trademark for every name that starts with go2.

It's also hard for me to believe that a registrar or a web hosting company could be sued for registering a domain name for someone. But someone here claims that it happened in a gucci case.

You probably do want to consult an attorney. I would probably just send them a nasty letter about abuse of process, but that's me.

with "web" in it and another with the word "host" in it. So, all of you with either web or host in your domain name, you must turn them over to me immediately.

Now I'm just gonna sit back and wait for the riches to come rolling in.

This is so absurd....yet, if they have the money for lawyers they may well bully others into surrender.

It would be so much better if the laws were more clearly defined as to what is infringement and what isn't. From a non-legal standpoint, I just fail to see anything unique and patentable about the term go2 or goto....why most of us have been hearing people told to goto all our lives.

So, maybe tell them to goto....

Why can't people just go about building their own businesses rather than worrying about who copied, who stole my idea, and all the other peripheral issues.

Build a better mouse-trap and they will come.

Notice, it doesn't say anything about finding a better mouse-trap name.

they can own the copyright to it all they want and unless they registered gotosimon or whatever, or your using you site to compete or slag them off they dont stand a cat in hells chance, theyre bluffing completely. let it go to icanns internal dispute process, if they ignore this then theyre screwed in court anyway. its a bluff pure and simple. assuming the only connection between your site and theirs in a vaguely similar name then its all rubbish. otherwise i could copyright my initials and claim back every domain with the letters rpm in it. best thing for you to do is get a brief legal consult, and get a reply sent back saying in slightly better words, get bent. if they try anything legal, theyre wasting their money and you can claim back costs. just dont give in. they will give up or loose out major league. if they had a leg to stand on the people would be registering names left right and centre and the internet would be a sham. the laws are only in place to stop one company registering another name similar to a company already in existance and messing with their image, like burstnet did, i.e. the laws are their to stop scum acting like @rses and messing up other people. in the case of burstnet they got what they deserved for acting like kids. your case is different and the resolution will be different.

http://www.go2.co.uk/

http://www.go2.nl/

http://www.go2nottingham.com/

http://www.go2.lk/

http://www.go2cgi.com/

http://www.go2.net/

http://www.go2.com.cy/

http://www.go2orlando.com/

http://www.go2.co.il/


Looks like they are going to be very busy!!!