I Will Continue To Fight!
Today, I need all of your support more than ever. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has delivered a verdict, and unfortunately it’s not in our favor. We have fought long and hard for nearly four years to retain our company domain name, Perfumebay.com, and we anticipated being vindicated. Our next step is to go to the Supreme Court, as well as file an emergency stay of injunction to allow us to continue operation with this domain name.
This battle has been exhausting and expensive, but I refused to give up. Too often, Goliaths are victorious in these types of battles. I am fighting for small businesses everywhere, for our more than 300,000 customers (YOU!), and for my American Dream.
At this time my main concern is that we continue to provide you with quality service. I promise to provide regular updates on the lawsuit and potential domain name change. Thank you again for all of your uplifting comments and continued support, it means so much to me, especially at this moment.
~ Jacquelyn
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November 6th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
You’re chances of getting the judgement overturned are pretty good. If the Supreme Court will hear the case. The 9th Circuit is the most overturned Circuit in the nation.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:46 am
I support you! This absolutely disgusts me. It’s disappointing that a company like eBay would do this to a small business when it is *very* obvious that the intent of the name is something meant to convey something tropical, romantic, and associated with water (like Mandalay Bay) and not a copy cat of eBay. There are other sites where the names are very obviously copies of eBay, but this one is not. eBay sounds like an auction site. “Perfume Bay” really does sound like a place where perfume lovers go.
In any case, I would post on some big sites like Digg, Facebook, My Space, etc. to get the message out there and ask people to write to eBay’s lawyers about using some better judgement on who they decide to pursue on trademark infringement cases. People are sensitive to the big guys trampling all over the little guy. If eBay wins this case, it will seem as though they own the word “Bay” and no other word that ends with “e” will ever be able to be used in a name with “Bay”, which is *ludicrous*.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
This is what i don’t understand. Why was the burden of proof solely on you? Where is the “likelihood of confusion” that is the basis of trademark infringement? Did eBay prove that an average person would confuse a perfume store website vs an online auction website? Does this mean that we can’t have sites with words that end with eBay such as HardwareBay that sells tools? The judge was silly to get hung up on the word Bay and the imagery of ships.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
[…] bay filled with ships carrying perfume from every corner of the world”. Ms Tran says that she will fight on: she has already filed an emergency stay of injunction to keep her domain name, and has vowed to […]
November 7th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I read of your plight on http://www.SubliminalMessages.Com and just wanted to encourage you to fight this bad ruling.
This is the epitomy of corporate cyber-bullying and the horrible decision needs to be reversed immediately.
November 8th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I wonder if eBay will go after PirateBay.com and many other online businesses with the word bay in their website domain name.
Keep up the fight. You have your rights too! You go girl!
November 9th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I’m supporting you as I believe it’s a genuine case. Normally I wouldn’t have support for such cases where it’s a potential trademark violation, sites such as myebayetc.com but no one could possible confuse the two sites.
Good luck. Keep up the fight
November 13th, 2007 at 11:58 am
This is a typically and extremly distressing ruling from a out of control 9th district court. How ludicrous a ruling this is. Jacquelyn keep up the fight and I for one will not do business with ebay again.
November 16th, 2007 at 8:23 am
I predicted this would happen for this is purely an emotional battle for you and your lawyers. The question is for the common person with little or no computer experience can there be confusion between Perfumebay and ebay and the answer is obvisous yes. Your customers have told you they could care less what you call yourself as long as you offer the great selection and customer service you always have. You forgot that you are selling products not a brand.
You can now focus on building your business instead of a new condo and vacations for your lawyer.
Jim
P.s. I will be placing my order soon for my holiday shopping.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Hi! I live in Brazil and I’m a happy costumer at perfumebay. I don’t share the so called “american dream” (well, I live in the “3th world”) but all I know is that “justice” is just another word in these wild capitalistic days. The name of your business is just another word too. What really counts is the high quality of your services. And that depends just on you. How about “Perfume Paradise”? Take care, Pat.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:38 pm
I don’t know if my comment will be allowed here since it goes against what others have said, but here’s the copy to the decision:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/85AEE84897725D758825738A005C180E/$file/0556794.pdf?openelement
Read pages 8-9 and 13-20 and LMK what you find.
Good luck on your disputing this then, Jacquelyn. But the least you could do was post a copy of the decision for others to see and decide for themselves.
November 23rd, 2007 at 11:02 pm
[…] Bay found out - online auction mega-site eBay took exception to their domain name taking them all the way through the US court system because of name-copyright infringement - www.perfumEBAY.com (All credit to TamEbay for […]
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:41 am
Win or lose, I feel for you as to the cost of your litigation; we are enduring the same. Trademark struggles are probably not that interesting to all, but to those who are involved, they take a life of their own. Fortunately, the company we have been battling has finally “seen the light” and started to change their name. Our trademark lawsuit is where a Mega Goliath franchise decided to take our entire and exact trademarked name and the “net” version of our domain name and our struggle to get them to stop. I think a lesson for all who read these sites is that a trademark is only as good as your abililty to finance the litigation. It costs 100s and 100s of thousands of dollars to fund these lawsuits, whether you are right or wrong. Its very hard to be the little guy and defend your mark as there are no contingency attorneys for this type of litigation.
At least with the web we are all able to tell our story, but it will be a jury or the courts who decide. Our personal story is at www.remaxlawsuits.com. Another very interesting trademark story, for those who are into this, is the story of the Skippy trademark at www.skippy.com.
Personally Jacquelyn I think you have a very steep uphill battle to reverse this decision, nevertheless you have the right to persue your battle and that is what makes America such a great place. You have been very successful, and it might be time, with the money you will spend on furthering the litigation to gradually move to your other domains. Whatever you decide, I personally feel your pain, this is no fun and I am sure you will agree. Best of luck. JM
April 18th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Hi Ms. Jacquelyn,
Have a nice day!
I’m Alice, from Vietnam, do selling perfume, but i have just started my biz. I wanna talk with you more a’b this biz.
How can i contact you directly?
Looking forward to hearing from u soon.
Tks & Best Regards,
Alice
August 11th, 2008 at 5:55 am
You have the best site, and I’m behind You 200% I buy all your perfume’s and my Husband’s and Kid’s, Please let us know where and what site You will be on. I have Loads of Family and friends that also used Perfumebay. I work in a casino, and I have told everyone about that site, EVERYONE loves it, You have great deals and don’t try to kill us the people, You are the greatest thing this internet has had. I buy A lot on Ebay, not anymore!!! Jacquelyn keep fighting for what is rightfully Your’s. Trust Me You Have a lot of support on this end, I know when I told people about Perfume Bay, They went crazy. I know over 200 people started buying from that site, I know becauseI gave them the site. I couldn’t tell You how many people have approched me asking hey what’s up with our perfume site! I was shocked, mad, and disgusted. Ebay Your wrong, They will be hearing from me and I’m sure a LOT more from Louisiana. You hang in there girl, We are proud of You! I was about to send in my Christmas list, that’s how I found all this out. Now question, which half the casino has asked me where do we place our orders? We Love ya Jacquelyn, just please keep us informed, because no matter what happens You have loyal people that are behind You! Good Luck!! Dottie, Famiy & Friends P.S. My 8 year old son wear’s nothing but Soul, all my kids get all their cologne’s and perfume’s from You. He wanted Me to tell You, lol and he means it. Ok Go Get Them Girl!!!
May 29th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Nice site! thanks for the great post…%d%a%d%aPeople should read this.
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:57 pm
The PirateBay said:
were going to do a video streaming site. Its true. Its in the works being done right now and as usual we put a bit of Pirate Bay mentality behind every project we do.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I’m glad I found your blog, there are some really useful tools here.
Thanks
September 10th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
November 16th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Carefully selecting your words and strategically placing them on a page to create impulsive reactions from the reader can lead to a direct sell.
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