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Re: Savin Corp beating up a family organization
A quick search for "savin" in the Internic database reveals the
following domain names (my search was actually aborted after 50
records had been turned up, including those of individuals bearing
the name Savin, which are irrelevant and therefore excluded here):
SAVIN (PASHMINA-PARIS-DOM) PASHMINA-PARIS.COM
SAVIN Alexandre Michel (CASHMERE-OF-THE-WORLD-DOM) CASHMERE-OF-THE-WORLD.COM
SAVIN Alexandre Michel (CASHMERE-HOUSE-DOM) CASHMERE-HOUSE.COM
SAVIN Alexandre Michel (ALEXANDRE-SAVIN-DOM) ALEXANDRE-SAVIN.COM
SAVIN Alexandre Michel (CASHMERE-CLINIC-DOM) CASHMERE-CLINIC.COM
SAVIN Graphics (SAVINGRAPHICS-DOM) SAVINGRAPHICS.COM
SAVIN, DANIELA (DOSTOYEVSKY4-DOM) DOSTOYEVSKY.ORG
Savin Corporation (SAVINWASHINGTON-DOM) SAVINWASHINGTON.COM
Savin Corporation (SAVIN3-DOM) SAVIN.COM
Savin Electronics (SAVINELECTRONICS-DOM) SAVINELECTRONICS.COM
Savin Hill Computer (MCKENNASCAFE-DOM) MCKENNASCAFE.COM
Savin Hill Computer Center (SAVINHILLCOMPUTER-DOM) SAVINHILLCOMPUTER.COM
Savin Hill Computer Center (SAVINHILLTRAINING-DOM) SAVINHILLTRAINING.COM
Savin Hill Inc (JETSJETSJETS-DOM) JETSJETSJETS.COM
Savin Hill Inc. (DIRECTORYCONSULTING-DOM) DIRECTORYCONSULTING.COM
Savin Hill Inc. (DIRECTORYCONSULTANT-DOM) DIRECTORYCONSULTANT.COM
Savin Hill Sporting (YAWKEYBASEBALL-DOM) YAWKEYBASEBALL.COM
Savin Lumber Co. (SAVINLUMBER-DOM) SAVINLUMBER.COM
Savin Names (PERFECT-MARRIAGE-DOM) PERFECT-MARRIAGE.COM
Savin Names (COACH-PITCH-DOM) COACH-PITCH.COM
Savin Names (HOT-ROMANCE2-DOM) HOT-ROMANCE.COM
Savin Names (HEALTHY-TEENS-DOM) HEALTHY-TEENS.COM
Savin Names (RARE-TOYS-DOM) RARE-TOYS.COM
Savin Names (HEALTHY-WOMEN-DOM) HEALTHY-WOMEN.COM
Savin Names (PERFECT-ROMANCE-DOM) PERFECT-ROMANCE.COM
Savin Names (PERFECT-FAMILY-DOM) PERFECT-FAMILY.COM
Savin Names (HEALTHY-BABY-DOM) HEALTHY-BABY.COM
Savin Productions (SAVINPRODUCTIONS-DOM) SAVINPRODUCTIONS.COM
There may be many more, and most notably, SAVIN.ORG didn't appear in
the above list, so I made few individual queries:
Savin's PC Story Network service (SAVIN2-DOM) SAVIN.NET
Neil Savin (SAVIN4-DOM) SAVIN.ORG
The long list is just for legal and technical context, since it
would be natural for Savin Corporation to use this particular
database to search for potential "infringements" on their name.
We can immediately disregard entries where the domain names
themselves don't contain the string "SAVIN", and which have been
included merely because they were registered by someone named
Savin. Savin Corporation may still have an issue with companies
using the name "Savin" in their regular name or in advertising
rather than in their domain name, but that's a different matter.
This essentially leaves us with the following domains, which I'd
try to categorize based on what I can learn from the Internic
database:
ALEXANDRE-SAVIN.COM Alexandre Michel Savin, Paris, France
SAVINGRAPHICS.COM SAVIN Graphics, Michigan, USA
SAVINWASHINGTON.COM Savin Corporation, Maryland, USA
SAVIN.COM Savin Corporation, Connecticut, USA
SAVINELECTRONICS.COM Savin Electronics, South Carolina, USA
SAVINHILLCOMPUTER.COM Savin Hill Computer Center, Massachusetts, USA
SAVINHILLTRAINING.COM Savin Hill Computer Center, Massachusetts, USA
SAVINLUMBER.COM Savin Lumber Co., West Virginia, USA
SAVINPRODUCTIONS.COM Savin Productions, Solihull, UK
SAVIN.NET Savin's PC Story Network service, Seoul, South Korea
SAVIN.ORG Neil Savin, Maidenhead, UK
SAVINHILLCOMPUTER.COM and SAVINHILLTRAINING.COM both seem to
relate to a geographical location named Savin Hill. SAVIN.NET
appears to belong to a company in Korea, but their web site is
entirely in korean, so it's difficult to say anything more.
SAVINPRODUCTIONS.COM is situated in Britain, which may be of
interest in this case. SAVINELECTRONICS.COM is a U.S. company.
SAVINGRAPHICS.COM and SAVINLUMBER.COM seem to be impossible to
find in terms of web sites. Alexandre Savin is probably an
individual like yourself.
Most importantly, Savin Corporation appears to be well represented
on the Internet already, with two domains allocated to them (I don't
know exactly how the Washington DC entity relates to the corporation,
but they are obviously affiliated with each other). Thus, they can
hardly claim they are victims of "cybersquatting" which the U.S. law
attempts to address. On the contrary, they already own the domain
that one would intuitively associate with them, SAVIN.COM, and if
they have a problem with others using the name "Savin", they should
target other commercial entities in the COM domain rather than
non-profit activities in ORG or the national TLDs.
If you are confident that you would win any dispute resolved under
British trademark law, then I'd suggest contacting Savin Productions
(in Britain) to find out whether they too have heard from Savin Corp
and how they responded to it. Maybe they (Brian Savin) would be
interested in assisting you in some way or another, since it should
be in their interest not to let Savin Corp obtain a single domain by
merely applying legal pressure and having the InterNIC or U.S. courts
recognize this as the appropriate procedure (tricky sentence, I know,
but you get my point).
Speaking of cybersquatting, there is one Jill Savin in Maryland, USA,
who, under the name of "Savin Names", appears to be involved in the
domain name business, owning such domains as HEALTHY-TEENS.COM and
PERFECT-FAMILY.COM, which don't seem have any web pages associated
with them, and which are probably meant for sale to the highest
bidder. Thus you may want to avoid appearing affiliated with this
kind of "family-related" business...
Having looked at your own web pages, I must admit that I'm not too
surprised if they make some company lawyer confused over the nature of
your activities. From reading your letter, I had expected something
like "The Savin family" with pictures, genealogical links and other
clearly non-commercial things. Instead, they say "The everything
'SAVIN' web pages" which is slightly less clear in intent to me.
First impressions last, and while nobody should be able to pressure you
into designing your web pages in any particular way, I'd suggest giving
that front page a slight touch-up. Add some descriptive text to tell
the uninformed what it's all about, use a less technical tone, include
a photo of yourself and possibly your family outside your home, and
move many of the links elsewhere. "THE FOLLOWING NON 'SAVIN' WEB PAGES
ARE ALSO HOSTED HERE" sounds more like customer recommendations for a
freakin' web hotel than a collection of links pertaining your personal
interests! Use plain text style rather than headers for link anchors,
in order to leave more visual room for the (desired) narrative.
<URL:http://www.savin.org/links.html> is what may really get the
lawyers spinning, I'm afraid. Not that the page by itself would
constitute any kind of infringement, but it looks pretty much like
a business directory to me. Or, did you create this list _after_
you began receiving legal complaints from Savin Corp, as some kind
of demonstration of the wide use of the name Savin on the Internet?
In any case, I recommend being explicit about your intentions.
I see very little indication here that Savin is your family name.
I'm a genealogist myself, but I have no desire to go hog wild
collecting links to business web sites simply mentioning the name
"Andersson"; I'd rather present my family tree... :-)
Your clearly expressed intent is especially important if you plan
to talk to the press about what Savin Corp is doing to you and your
web pages. A family living in a private home and spending time on
their hobbies is something the general public can identify with and
feel sympathy for. A collection of obscure hypertext links to pages
containing even more obscure hypertext links is not.
--
Anders Andersson, Sweden