Paul Dell, a website designer living in Minorca, Spain has been sued (AFF/DOS. N° 100019460, ACTE 395925, N/REF.: DELL/DELL) by computer manufacturer Dell Computers for operating a small local business using his own name — Dell Websites.
The lawsuit claims he's engaging in 'parasitism and unfair competition' and asks for hundreds of thousands of Euros in damages, despite the fact that Dell Websites has been operating under the name since April 2001 and the computer company neither designs nor hosts websites. The lawsuit was filed in a Paris court because Paul previously lived in France.
The suit alleges that Paul used the name Dell Websites to take advantage of press releases the company sent out in spring of 2000 announcing that Dell was about to enter the small-business website hosting market. This isn't the first time Paul has heard from the company's lawyers. In 2002, they contacted him, demanding that he turn the domain name dellwebsites.com over to
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