the protection of the marks

7 months after having made prevail its rights near the holder of the domain name free.nc (extension of New Caledonia), the Free company carries the business in front of Tribunale de Grand Authority of Paris (to see assignment) and asks 150 000 € of damages.

This disagreement was the subject of one of my articles of  last November (The French trade-mark law also applies to the overseas territories”) that I decided to write after being contacted by email by the holder of the domain name and the site free.nc.

Within sight of the current situation, it is obvious that this last did not take my advice!

Below the email which was addressed to me:

Hello simongobert,
I send this email to you because one advised me to do it. I had obtaining a domain name in New Caledonia, his name is FREE.NC
already a month that I bump it above and telecommunications not forming more part of France in Calédonie they agreed to deliver it to me
I assembled various projects around free like my MAG on line here www.free.nc/mag and it is only one example
Only here, FREE.FR rebiffe since yesterday, here the ticket devoted to the problem
Free - til has the right to put to me in justice whereas to 22000 km I am far from being able to make them conccurence and that to say hundreds of existing fields in FREE free.com free.net free.org and of the hundreds still. Moreover they have the rights in the peaceful zone

Ci below the email sent by the legal service of Free

Dear Sir,

We are the company FREE et exerçons à titre notoire notre activité dans le domaine des telecommunications et de la communication; Nous sommes titulaires de divers droits privatifs sur le signe distinctif “FREE“. Nous venons de découvrir que vous n’aviez pas hésité à ouvrir un site internet intitulé free.nc.Vos agissements constituent des actes de contrefaçon par imitation de notre marque et des actes de concurrence déloyale et parasitaire à notre encontre. Nous vous mettons en demeure sous 15 jours à compter de l’envoi de ce courrier pour faire cesser vos agissements. A défaut d’execution dans ce délai, nous vous assignerons devant les tribunaux compétents. Nous avons d’ores et déja transmis ce dossier à notre avocat et fait constater vos actes par huissier de justice.
Agreez, Monsieur, nos salutations.
La direction juridique de FREE.

Merci à Cedric Manara d’avoir diffusé l’information