Telecom & Telstra at it again

By Steve Biddle, in General, posted: 18-Apr-2006 16:35

I found this story a funny read this afternoon - Telstra appear to have paid for the term AAPT in Google Adwords and a google search for prepay mobile phones.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/telstra-trademark-war-erupts/2006/04/17/1145126035123.html

Isn't it ironic then who owns the domain bigpond.co.nz despite Telstra owning the TM for Bigpond in NZ?

Other related posts:
Netsys HPNA/HCNA adapter review
When is a deal not necessarily a deal? When you buy it from Spreets.
Are NZ consumers being duped by retailers as Digital TV comes to town?

Permalink to Telecom & Telstra at it again | Add a comment (4 comments) | Main Index

Comment by freitasm, on 18-Apr-2006 17:18 , user id: 206)

Ownership of a domain name does not imply breach of a trademark registration. However, using a domain and offering a service or product that conflicts with a registered trademark is a problem.

Author's note by sbiddle, on 18-Apr-2006 17:59 , user id: 1387)

The whole domain name versus TM debate is very interesting in NZ. I registered a domain name earlier this year before another company got in and found some of the legal threats very interesting. The only people who seem to be having any fun in NZ are AJ Park lawyers who seem to be involved in quite a few domain name cases.

Comment by techremarks, on 19-Apr-2006 10:31 , user id: 20724)

I don't think Telstra is too worried about AAPT! Telecom has learnt the hard way what it is like to operate in a competitive market place. If Singtel goes ahead and buys AAPT and/or TCNZ, that's a different story.

Comment by juha, on 19-Apr-2006 10:40 , user id: 16775)

I was going to post an entry trackbacking (backtracking?) to this one, mentioning Ferrit and Trade Me, but couldn't get the desired screenshot to show up in it.

Anyway, you can see it here:
http://juhasaarinen.googlepages.com/ferrit.jpg

Add a comment

Please note: comments that are inappropriate or promotional in nature will be deleted. E-mail addresses are not displayed, but you must enter a valid e-mail address to confirm your comments.

Are you a registered Geekzone user? Login to have the fields below automatically filled in for you and to enable links in comments. If you have (or qualify to have) a Geekzone Blog then your comment will be automatically confirmed and shown in this blog post.

sbiddle's profile

Steve Biddle
Wellington
New Zealand

I'm an engineer who loves building solutions to solve problems.

My interests and skillset include:

*VoIP (Voice over IP). I work with various brands of hardware and PBX's on a daily basis
-Asterisk (incl trixbox, PiaF, FreePBX, Elastix and AsteriskNOW)
-Polycom
-Cisco
-Linksys
-Patton
-Zyxel
-Snom
-Sangoma
-Audiocodes

*Telecommunications/Broadband
-xDSL deployments
-WiMAX
-GSM/WCDMA

*Structured cabling
-Home/office cabling
-Phone & Data

*Computer networking
-Mikrotik hardware
-WAN/LAN solutions

*Wireless solutions
-Motel/Hotel hotspot deployments
-Outdoor wireless deployments, both small and large scale
-Temporary wireless deployments

*CCTV solutions
-Analogue and IP

You can contact me here or by email at stevenbiddle@gmail.com

twitter.com/stevebiddle

Located in NZ and after a cheap way to call friends or family in Australia?

Faktortel VoIP offers plans from $0 per month that offer you the convenience of being able to call landline numbers anywhere in Australia from A$ 10c per call (yes *per call*, not per minute!). An optional Australian DDI number also lets friends and family call you and they will only pay the cost of a local call. Interested? Check out Faktortel for more details.