Dell Sues Typo Domain Affiliates
As reported by the British website The Inquirer as well as the Domain Name Wire, hardware firm Dell has sued the registrants of the domain names d3ell.com, de3LL.com, d4ell.com, de4ll.com, dedll.com, derll.com and dxell.com.
The case alleges that Alf Temme, Lars Crispin Temme and Kim Temme had registered the domains to link them to Dell via a Linkshare affiliate link so they could earn commissions on all sales generated from the traffic arriving through the typo domains.
When Dell realized that they had actually paid the individuals and Linkshare fees and commissions on sales, they sued the defendants and want them to hand over the offending domain names and to pay damages and legal fees.
Daily Domainer comments:
Wait a minute… Dell made money off the traffic supplied by these domains. They even paid commissions to the domain registrants. Unless there was some sort of fraud involved, Dell made a profit.
But now they want their commissions back, plus "damages". What damages? If the Temmes hadn't registered these domains, Dell would have lost the traffic entirely (i.e. zero sales off that traffic). Even worse, someone else might have registered the domains and used them to sell something unrelated, and Dell wouldn't stand a chance.
Comments?
I hope they fight the case because Dell should lose it. Your point about Dell getting affiliate sales they may not have is right on.
The other thing is that if they thought the typo domains were important they should have registered them a long time ago. Now they want to sue for damages and to get the domains…?
Bad PR move, Dell. You have just lost some respect in MY eyes…!
I'm not a big fan of typo domains or squatters in general. But if the principal doesn't register the domains, I really feel they should be "fair game". Just the way I see it.
[...] It would appear Dell is suing the owners of the following domains: d3ell.com, de3LL.com, d4ell.com, de4ll.com, dedll.com, derll.com and dxell.com. [...]
Well, you say that Dell have been getting affiliate sales they may not otherwise have been getting, but is that really the case?
Let's look at the situation from the top:
A user mistypes dell.com as de3ll.com (somehow!). This is owned by the Temme family who automatically transfer the user to dell.com via an affiliate address they obtained from Linkshare. This resulted in a sale for Dell, with a commission payed to the Temmes. The customer is unaware that they have gone through the affiliate.
Now let's say that the customer entered the URL as de3ll.com and received a "Server could not be found" error. Or that they were taken to a site selling lawnmowers. They would recheck the URL, notice the mistake, and correct it, going directly to the dell site.
The fact that these people made money through human error, and did it in a covert way could be interpreted as fraud.
I don't like Dell, but I don't think these people are good people either
Dell would still have made the sales in my opinion, ie if the user typed d3ell.com by mistake and got Server Cannot Be Found, they would then change it to dell.com
They don't just suddenly arrive at Dell and think hmm lets buy a computer, it is planned. And so Dell is actually losing money in sending out the affiliate cheques which would otherwise not be sent out. The squatters are profiteering off the Dell name and that alone…
Woah, good point si. Just as I was typing mine.
To say that they wouldn't have got the sales if the sites hadn't been there is just utter rubbish.
Anyone that mis-typed dell.com would have got a "page not found" or some other site unrelated to dell and would then have retyped the http://www.dell.com or used a search engine. When was the last time you tried to get to a popular site like yahoo or google, mistyped it, got another site that was unrelated (or a page cannot be displayed) and then gave up and went and had a coffee instead, rather than just typing again until you found the site.
This was obviously a well thought out bit of journalism (that's sarcasm). There are simply no interesting facts that let the reader make their own mind up.
Try setting up a multimillion dollar affiliate scheme that's nearly 100 % automated. You would have no idea who is sending you sales (and being paid by you) on a case by case basis. It's just stupid (again) to say that because dell paid these people they must have been fully aware of it and (tacitly) approved. Do you think they check what domains affiliate sales are coming from? Get in the real world. These guys were using dells name to make money. That's against trademark law.
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z21haww
dell didn't register these domains, they don't have any rights to it,
greedy bastards
It's totally stupid on Dell's part. If they want to sue them, just take the domains and the commission, not more.
doesn't sound like fraud to me although Steve and si make good points.. sounds like someone came up with a good way to make money. looks like its all business to me. I don't see how the Temmes were misleading anyone or faking anything…(which is usually what constitutes fraud).
If the typo domain led me to a computer site that sold knockoff dell computers, maybe that might be fraudulent…
i don't have an opinion either way on how this case turns out… but it is definitely interesting to see the case from both points of view.
I don't think its fraud, its intelligent marketing, if Dell were so worried about it they should do something like register all combination of URLs
Maybe Dell should scrap their affiliate program.
does it say in their affiliate program t&cs that mispelled domains cannot be used?
"If the Temmes hadn’t registered these domains, Dell would have lost the traffic entirely"
Yeah… right. Either that or the person in qestion would see that they misspelled Dell, fix it, and get on with their life. Stop yer idiotic blabbering.
Maybe the typo squatters should have read the affiliate agreement first. The agreement states that typo domains are not acceptable affiliates. By using typo domains, the squatters knowingly engaged in fraudulent business practices.
What if the domains had redirected to a competitor? Then Dell would have lost most of the the sales, and maybe they would have never even noticed the domains and they would have left the registrants alone.
But the domains were directed to Dell, and Dell made sales off the traffic, and one day Dell went through its affiliate payment logs and traffic logs, and realized that they paid commissions for traffic coming from dxell.com etc. That's probably what upset them because they believed the domains belonged to them.
I think it's a creative use of domains and Dell should have rewarded the affiliates and thanked them for not directing the traffic somewhere else.
Dell probably has lawyers working for them. I would imagine that if they don't sue these folks, they're suing someone else. Lawyer cost probably isn't an issue.
Creative?
A creative way to make personal gains, perhaps… but the purpose of 'business' isn't to maximize personal gains (although it -has- become the primary motivator) - business is about transactions, and short-term goals and corruption simply lead to overall waste.
And if it's difficult to take such a broad perspective, then consider these (hypothetically speaking):
>The costs of the link share is passed onto customers. A simple typo has created artificially higher prices.
>Linking to competitors would not only be profiting off of an unrelated reputation, but in the long-run would undermine the concept of reputation.
"but the purpose of ‘business’ isn’t to maximize personal gains"
Funny, and here I thought that was EXACTLY what capitalism was all about. So you're telling me that I don't run my custom computer shop for personal gain, that it's really all about the transactions? For some reason that just doesn't seem to square right….
Well, I think that dell should lose. Cause it is really stupid that they should sue to get some small profits back from the domain owners. And since dell got money, they had nothing to lose from the domain owners redirecting to dell.
More power to Dell. I'd be pissed if i had to pay someone when in all intentions of that consumer they were going to be coming directly to me. Domain squatters are the worse.
you're an idiot or just support theives. Dell would not have lost traffic. Users fix typos. Clearly this is just a dishonorable way to get cash. Those typo domains belong o dell but they bought them beforehand to make what they thoght would eb unnoticed free cash. I hope they pay huge fines in damages.
Bobby Jones is 100% correct! a user was typing in these domains because they wanted the Dell Website. if they didn't get it first time, they'll look at the address bar and type it in again, correctly.
In my view, Dell were perfectly in their rights to sue. The've spent millions on building their brand!
Lee
Actually, Dell strictly and openly prohibits such "copycat" domain names in their affiliate policy.
I'm a Linkshare affiliate member (not for Dell) and here is an excerpt from Dell's policy that clearly states as one of their top 12 rules:
"Unsuitable sites include, but are not limited to, those that: ….
Include Dell or variations or misspellings thereof in their domain names"
You also have to submit the domain names that you will be posting links on. You cannot set up your affiliate account for one URL and then post links on other domain names with their approval.
I say Dell is right on the issue EXCEPT I don't believe Dell has any right to sue for the domain name ownership.
I wonder if Dell are also taking action against Linkshare to reclaim the override?
I hate Dell, they are sooooo slow at paying their invoices on TradeDoubler, I hope they don't win, but I think it's unlikely!
PS. HAve you seen this site? http://www.ihatedell.net
I know a bit more about this Dell lawsuit than all of you
together because I am that domain squatter Alf Temme himself.
I do not quite know what exactly Dell's objective was in
this suit. Do they want the 7 mistyped domain names or are
they more interested in teaching one of those nasty
typo-squatters a lessen? Or do they badly need the $50,000
they now wish to punish me with to compensate them for the
$4000 they claim they lost from paying out LinkShare sales
commissions? The decision leading up to the lawsuit was made
during the tenure of Kevin Rollins as Dell's CEO. Under the
tenure of Kevin Rollins years of bad decisions and bad luck
took their toll on the once brilliant company under the previous
leadership of Michael Dell as CEO. Well, Rollins is out
and Michael is back in the CEO position since Feb.1, 2007,
and I believe that under his leadership such minutiae
as going after a typo-squatter would not be at the top of
his list. The more important thing on since Friday, February 9,
2007 is the 250 page suit that was filed against most members
of the Dell senior membership for doing insider trading
involving for most of them the selling of almost 100% of
their Dell stock holdings. Sounds like Enron? Are they
leaving the ship before it is sinking ? See http://www.4117.com .
Dell is doing strange things those days! I don't know what are their aims!
Dell should be happy that they even got ANY of the revenue from those domain names. 99% of the time with this sort of domain use, you don't see any of the profits.
What if the misspelled site had a button -
Would that be ok? As I see it, an affiliate program is a link - nothing more. If the user clicks the button, then they have chosen to go to the dell site via that button and all bets are off. Pay me my commission!!!
BTW - I don't think anything was wrong with the direct link.
Companies like DELL and a lot of others are doing this also lack insight and just have stupid people running them that are no thinking.
I have a problem with typo or TM squatting if you are using the traffic for something else or sending it to the competition but if you are sending to the company through an an affiliate program it's just not right for them to do that.
I have never been sued but I have been told to take down the names or stop using them or we will kick you out of the program before. That is just insane.
I signed up for a program I spent my time and money to buy name loaded with keywords that had traffic that the company did not have the insight to buy and then I sent them the traffic. It was a Win/Win situation.
But telling me I could not do it. They lose and I lose. Any company or person that follows this way of thinking has rocks in their head or sh!t for brains.
This is a common practice of these days and if the company is getting the traffic they should be happy.
I think if Dell didn't register the domains, it's fair game.
I'm pretty sure if a domain name is already TM'ed, you can't do domain squatting.. don't they?
But.. Bad move by Dell. Affiliates would be disgusted and move on to promote competitors instead.
If the courts side with dell imagine the million of typo domains that will be in jeopardy their will tons of lawsuits this would affect alot of companies such as google, yahoo, and commission websites so i believe some of these companies will lobby so that dell loses.
I'd give back the commissions and point the domains to http://www.hp.com/
Or even better, Consumer Reports for PC's… http://www.online.consumerreports.org/computers/?EXTKEY=SG72EC0&CMP=KNC-CROASELEC&HBX_OU=50&HBX_PK=Computers
I find all of these lawsuits ridiculous. I'm sorry, but if DELL is so worried about it, let them go out and register every possible .com, .net, .mobi, .asia, .etc, .etc. and all of the TYPO's to boot. They made the sale, big deal a couple of small time players got a commission off it, I'm sure there are some PC salesmen and saleswomen in the world somewhere in the world making a commission by pointing buyers to DELL products.. DUHHHH, Mr. Mike..
That's so messed up, but I can't say I'm surprised. I used to be a huge dell fan, not i can't think of a worse place to buy a comp from. Horrible customer service and lousy hardware isn't a great way to keep customers satisfied. That's a fact I can testify too.
If the T&Cs specifically prohibit the use of domain typos and squatting, then I guess Dell has some reason to be p*ssed. Otherwise, they should have just said "we'll double your commissions, if you will just transfer the domains to us and agree not to do it again."
Just my .02
Are we still discussing this issue..? I'm starting to feel like an Archaeologist digging up old bones!! lol :)) To hell with dell, they sold more boxes and are trying to squeeze the little guys who may have made a few crumbs. I'd would suggest Dell lawyers on retainers find bigger fish to fry. It seems they are trying to protect their phony baloney jobs..!! :p
I agree with you Brad - lets move on - building directories and strategies.
Dell should go fucking blow up. Some affiliates thought of a good way to make money. I think they should even give the affiliates a bonus for there idea. I will never buy a DELL product again because of this. I bet they lost many customers do to this.
Dell is horrible, do yourself a favor and change to alienware.