Dell vs Dell (David vs Goliath)

Email received today:

Hi Pip,
I'm a Wilson's Blogmanac subscriber and I wondered if you would be interested in this. It may not be the sort of thing you use - but I thought I'd try.
Basically, Dell Computers is suing a friend, Paul Dell (an Englishman working and living in Spain) for his website domain name, dellwebsites.com. They're claiming damages totalling around 300,000 Euro. (Yeah right, he has cost them nearly AU$500K in lost revenue etc? Since when does the PC manufacturer and retailer do website design, anyway?)
It's not the first time they tried to get the domain off him (see the article in The Register from Jan 2005 ) but this time they're asking big money and since it's short notice for him to raise the money for the legal fees, his lawyers have agreed it's ok for him to ask for donations. He's not allowed to talk about the case or be seen to be maligning Dell Computers though, so we his friends are trying to help.
(Ha. A friend just sent me this. It's real David and Goliath stuff: ---DALLAS (AP) Dell Inc. said Thursday that fourth-quarter profit rose 52 percent as the world's largest personal computer maker finally turned in stronger sales growth than expected, led by sales to businesses and to international customers. ---)
We started a blog for Paul here which gives a bit of background for this latest round. I also blogged it here but basically repeated the "official" blog. My friend Stephanie Sullivan (who is a prominent US web developer) has given quite a good run-down on it on her own blog.
Any publicity you could direct to this would be very much appreciated. Paul has to have the money for this specialist lawyer before Monday so we're in emergency mode.
Thanks!
Vicki. :-)
--Vicki Berry,
Distinctive Web :: Blog

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Tagged: corporations, internet