FC: A snarky spat over lawyernastygrams and "thewarmcompany.com"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 19:14:09 -0400
From: studio <studio () thewarmcompany com>
To: "J. Stephen Simms" <jssimms () gslaw com>
Cc: derek () thewarmcompany com, journal () raettig org, fridgelist () raettig org,
        declan () well com, ask () eff org, chris () raettig org
Subject: Re: Demand to Cease Use of "thewarmcompany.com"

J. Stephen Simms:

We have received your email message from friday 17th May, 2002.

Given the demanding nature of what it contains, and the insecurity
of electronic mail we would ask that your request be submitted
through a channel which gives us at least some ability to verify your
identity. We would be happy to continue this dialogue over any such
medium. You can send conventional mail to our head office, the address
of which is included in the footer of this message. We are happy to
communicate with you using email if you could PGP sign any such
correspondence and make arrangements to confirm your PGP footprint over
some other channel. We feel sure you can understand how foolish it would
be of us to take action or enter into a discourse of this type over
an insecure and easily spoofable medium.

We can reassure you that after receiving and verifying your notice over
a more secure forum we would be happy to co-operate with you to the
extent we are able. However we would like to suggest that a lead-time
of two business days is insufficient given the nature of your
accusations. We would like to ask, as a courtesy, that you give us
four working days from the time of such confirmation. This will allow
us to consult with legal experts, the Internet community at large, and people
within the appropriate fields. It would not be diligent or sensible
of us - as I'm sure your client would agree - to act without being
fully aware of the facts behind what you allege and seeking best advice.
It also gives us a realistic timeframe, if persuaded of the merits of your
argument, to close down and arrange effective transfer of the domain, or
to instigate proper procedure under the ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute
Resolution Policy.

We hope you will agree with us that this is reasonable. If not, we are
open to discussing with you a solution more acceptable.


As an entirely seperate point; As experts on Internet and Web technology
and design we would be happy to extend your client (and yourselves) a
courtesy we occasionally offer when we consider it would be useful; a free
consultation, if they need a professionally designed and constructed
website.


Finally; We would politely point out that sending mail to every publically
available email address at a domain shows either an absence of understanding,
or lack of respect, for Internet etiquette. With the greatest respect
we ask that in future you be a little more selective in your choice of
recipient. Our standard site policy in situations where we feel our
email infrastructure is being abused is to offer an explanation, with
our mail server software set to automatically reject email from the offending
domain after any further mass mailings, in order to prevent further abuse.

As you clearly consider your communication with us to be important,
and we would like to be as accommodating as possible, we would urge
you to direct any future email communications with us to a single point
of contact. 'studio () thewarmcompany com' would be a sensible option.


We look forward to hearing from you soon by conventional mail, or
cryptographically signed email, and will do everything within our
power to assist you with your query.


Sincerely,

chris raettig
+
derek michael





> X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.5
> Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 17:57:42 -0400
> From: "J. Stephen Simms" <jssimms () gslaw com>
> To: <accounts () thewarmcompany com>, <chris () thewarmcompany com>,
>    <derek () thewarmcompany com>, <press () thewarmcompany com>,
>    <studio () thewarmcompany com>, <support () thewarmcompany com>
> Cc: "Jennifer Lantz" <jalantz () gslaw com>,
>    "W. Charles Bailey, Jr." <wcbailey () gslaw com>
> Subject: Demand to Cease Use of "thewarmcompany.com"
> X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by www.affective.org
id g4HM3iI01784
> X-Keywords:
> X-UID: 2714
>
> ** High Priority **
> ** Reply Requested by 5/21/2002 (Tuesday) **
>
> Gentlemen:
>
> We are lawyers instructed by The Warm Company, Seattle, Washington
(http://www.warmcompany.com).
>
> The Warm Company is the owner of the trademark for The Warm Company.
>
> We have noted your recently-registered domain name, "thewarmcompany.com"
This domain name, as well as the name that you recently have chosen for
your company, violates The Warm Company's trademark rights.  The
registration of the domain name further violates both US and UK
anti-cyber-squatting laws.
>
> The Warm Company demands that you immediately cease use of
"thewarmcompany.com" domain name, and de-link any web presence, including
email and your web site, from that domain.  The Warm Company further
demands that you cease use of the name "The Warm Company."
>
> So that The Warm Company does not have to consider further action,
please confirm by return, not later than 21 May, 2002, that you have
ceased use of the domain name "thewarmcompany.com"
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
> J. Stephen Simms
> Greber & Simms
> 410-783-5795
> 410-510-1563 (f)
> http://www.gslaw.com




--
studio () thewarmcompany com
http://www.thewarmcompany.com

t: +44 (0)207 286 2659
f: +44 (0)8700 517 153
m: +44 (0)7976 908 538

warmstudio 54 blechynden street, london w10 6rj, united kingdom




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