Sun MicroSystems Suing My SME Company?

last SG · 2009-07-31T11:28:20+00:00

damN, talking bout Bing.buns.. i wanna have 1 sia !!Sho hungry at nite, "good bros" outsai i cant go out....humpff... Soft on e outsai, Micro Soft insai ....

Ignatius.shawn SG

Read Below...

Ignatius.shawn SG

Yup

Forbiddensinner SG

At the beginning of this year a partner and I registered a company called Glass Fish Designs LLP. We have been running our small little business doing web deisgning, maintainence and designing basically.

After 4 months, a big giant known as Sun Microsystems have sent us a C&D letter AKA as Cease and Desist telling us that we were infringing on their trademark and wanted us to take off our domain (www.glassfish.com.sg) and give it to them FOC...

Thats besides the point, but further more when our company did some checks with Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.. They had only filed a trademark application for GlassFish on the 3rd of July 2009... It hasn't been approved and it is still in pending... So what on earth are they trying to do?

Read the actual letter!

Honestly I have no idea what to make of this... Take a look when we did check with IPOS...

The trademark being filed in 3rd July 2009 when our company was registered early this year!

[URL=http://s947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/ignatiusshawn/?action=view&current=001.jpg][IMG]http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/ignatiusshawn/th_001.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/ignatiusshawn/?action=view&current=002.jpg][IMG]http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/ignatiusshawn/th_002.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/ignatiusshawn/?action=view&current=003.jpg][IMG]http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/ignatiusshawn/th_003.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Notice what they wrote on the underlines... Exactly what our company does and whatever that is mentioned in our website... Take a closer look!

[URL=http://s947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/ignatiusshawn/?action=view&current=004.jpg][IMG]http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/ignatiusshawn/th_004.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Coincidental? I dont know... We checked trademarks that they had filed overseas and all of them were using the same keywords however they conveniently added the underlined words to IPOS Trademark Registration...

I really dont have an idea.. Take a look

This is one trademark they had filed in the UK

And another in Europe.. They have a few more.. but none in Singapore and the rest had nothing like the specifications added in for IPOS....

I'll update with the details... We're talking to our lawyers now... Pffft...

Here are the steps to posting up an image:

1) Right click on the image and select " Copy Image Location ".

2) Press the tree-like icon all the way to the left and on the same row as the 'Bold', 'Italic' and 'Underline', which is just above the space you are posting in.

3) Paste the link which you have copied into Image Url, and finally press "Insert".

On a side note, you can use the rest of the functions to change the Image's size and positioning.

Ignatius.shawn SG

Read the actual letter!

Honestly I have no idea what to make of this... Take a look when we did check with IPOS...

The trademark being filed in 3rd July 2009 when our company was registered early this year!

Notice what they wrote on the underlines... Exactly what our company does and whatever that is mentioned in our website... Take a closer look!

I really dont have an idea.. Take a look

This is one trademark they had filed in the UK

And another in Europe.. They have a few more.. but none in Singapore and the rest had nothing like the specifications added in for IPOS....

I'll update with the details... We're talking to our lawyers now... Pffft...

Thanks for the heads up on how to link photos! Cheers mate!

Agenda SG

I think once they have filed the Trademark, they already have it. Furthermore, if they have already subscribed to the US probably, you have no case here. You will lose it.

And to think, you know of web designing, why did you even stupidly choose glassfish as the name?

Ignatius.shawn SG

Honestly I'm not saying that everything is dandy now with the current predicament that my company is in together with theirs... but I would have thought that things could be settled alot more amicably than I expected...Money that is incurred for our company coming up with a domain and everything.. its not cheap...

Besides why only file a trademark after four months in Singapore if the US one applies in Singapore as well.. And why only send us a C & D letter only after 4 months... You gotta be kidding me...

R3SsH|n SG

check with lawyers. maybe they wanna use glassfish.com.sg to open a singapore domain for "their" glassfish.

best, sell the domain name to them for large amount of money. and i mean large!!!

Forbiddensinner SG

check with lawyers. maybe they wanna use glassfish.com.sg to open a singapore domain for "their" glassfish.

best, sell the domain name to them for large amount of money. and i mean large!!!

The problem now is that they want TS to surrender the domain for FREE.

R3SsH|n SG

The problem now is that they want TS to surrender the domain for FREE.

to my understanding, if you pay money for something, that thing belongs to you. if you trademarked it, thats even better.

TS trademarked that "glassfish" in singapore. he also bought over the domain "www.glassfish.com.sg". all these cost money. i don't see why TS must give it to them foc.

Agenda SG

If not wrong, trademark filed in some convention agreement's country is applicable in Singapore.

Maybe TS can negotiate, but he cannot keep the name.

R3SsH|n SG

then problem lies with ipos who allowed the trademark to TS?

Ignatius.shawn SG

I think the major issue right now is that there should be a fairer method to settling such disputes.. We all feel that even though you are a big company and have the money.. you still have to be ethical in handling matters like that... at least give a settlement fee for crying out loud...

A small company had to create a brand for ourselves from scratch and now we have to rebrand and give you our domain for free? You gotta be kidding us.. We rather cancel the domain and let them pay for it again...

R3SsH|n SG

ya! sell it to them! make big money!

ditzy SG

There was a similar case for the firefox website, some guy had used it already, but I think mozilla wrote in to him, and he gave it up willingly with some conditions, like if you go see it, mozilla thanks and credit him for passing over the website name to them.

Herzog_Zwei SG

GlassFish started off as a project in 2005. Its stable release was only achieved this year in January and Sun started IPO takeover just only. So you need to mention that Glassfish in your company name is coincidental and you have no prior knowledge of the project and its name. Of course, your also need to provide evidence of your company's business dealings and speciality. You might need to explain how your company name came about and the period of it being registered as a company. So get your lawyer to contact Sun's lawyer and state a willingness to settle the matter admicably and in camera. Just get ready for a name change for your company and a new website. Please remember to ask for some money to cover the cost of the name change and new webby but please do not go over the line. GlassFish started in 2005 but did not register itself as an IP entity until much later.

Ignatius.shawn SG

Thanks for the heads up... We only hope to get this settled amicably with Sun Microsystems... Honestly, we are pretty honoured that they would actually bother so much about a small sme like ours... that they wrote us personally.. haha

nightzip SG

Do not be intimidated by their lawyers as lawyers always like to scare the freak out of people to facilitate their smooth work/purpose.

Consult your counsel/lawyer and then ask the other party to purchase your domain at a reasonable price, provide your points & arguments to your lawyer who should be able to represent you and then seek arbitration with other party by them having to pay you a higher price for the domain than what you initially have paid. This is standard practice, else they would have to find another domain. If they buying, due to existed demand, you command the price, remember that.

bananaCoke SG

come on.. why did you name your domain glassfish.com.sg and your company name glass fish design llp. you are a web developing company you should know what is glassfish what.

it is like naming your company micro soft design llp or apple design llp. i suggest you create a new name and if eventually your company becomes big you sure what to collaborate with sun given a chance?

new name other than glassfish also good. people see your company name glassfish abit like wannabe. since you are design company, you would prefer a creative image right? using glassfish as a name suggest you copy instead of create.

just my honest opinion thank you for reading.

eagle SG

Wow I spent quite a bit of time to read through...

The replies are quite good...

GlassFish started off as a project in 2005. Its stable release was only achieved this year in January and Sun started IPO takeover just only.

There was a similar case for the firefox website, some guy had used it already, but I think mozilla wrote in to him, and he gave it up willingly with some conditions, like if you go see it, mozilla thanks and credit him for passing over the website name to them.

Your company is new, name is new, brand is new, so there's less damages to change it as compared to Sun. But do not give up for free... You have to list down the time and cost taken to build up your brand name and websites, etc... They have to compensate that... Lastly.... I would suggest that you request Sun to credit you somewhere for passing over the website name and company name as well somewhere on the website for at least a year.... This way, you still get re-direction to your new site if people searched for your previuos company's name...

The above is if you decide to settle amicably and give the name up with certain conditions.

PedoBear SG

i think sunmicro system got no case

remember the trade mark infrigment case about a nasi brani shop call mcdonald?

the nasi brani owner won

'glassfish' under sunmicro is a server while TS 'glassfish' is doing web designing. there is no chance that consumers will mistook the 2 different 'glassfish'

imagine if i open a fish and chip shop call 'glassfish' does it mean ts and sunmicro can send me a c&d order to stop me from selling my fisn and chips?

TS, get a good laywer, fight it out with sunmicro. You can always argue
1 - you company is call 'glassfish' while 'glassfish' is just a product line under sunmicro.
2 - you bought the domain first and you are already using the domain.
3 - sunmicro's 'glassfish' should be put under their own www.sun.com.sg
4 - sunmicro have another product line call opensolaris so how come they have not register for www.opensolaris.com.sg?

PM me if you need a good lawyer but then again, you need a good corporate lawyer while all those i know are criminal lawyers