Confusingly Similar to LuLu.com? — Is Hulu.com
LuLu.com owner goes following Hulu.com for trademark infringement.
LuLu.com is a self-publishing site. Hulu.com is a soon-to-be-released video site backed by News Corporation and NBC Universal. Is that confusing? As stated by the owner of LuLu.com, it is. LuLu.com has initiated legal action against HuLu.com, noting that both sites contain “digital content” and have similar domain names, as stated by a story in the Guardian.
It seems that LuLu.com believes that if you have a four character domain that is one letter off from LuLu.com (and there are regarding 100 such domains), and you publish some sort of content on your web site (or may in the future), then you are infringing on its trademark:
Bob Young, the chief executive of Lulu.com, described the branding of the rival Hulu service as a threat to the Lulu franchise and $10m invested in it.
“This is what trademark law is all regarding,” he told MediaGuardian.co.uk.
“But the big problem is that neither of us know where our businesses are going in the future.
“The odds are we’ll both end doing something other than what we started out to do.
“It is highly likely that in five years time, 80% of our revenues will come from completely different products and services.”
My take is that LuLu.com is either:
-In financial trouble and looking to get cash from a settlement
-Really proud of itself to think that NBC and Fresh Corp want to play off its “good name” (how many of you have seriously heard of LuLu.com ahead of?)
-Looking to get some free publicity
Domainers usually side with the little guy going up against Goliath, but in this case the tables are turned. If LuLu.com were to be successful, how would this be applied to a three letter domain? ABC.com could claim that NBC.com was “confusingly similar”.
Hopefully a judge will quickly toss this out.
