True Local TrueLocal - Will The Real One Stand Up?

[Brett_Tabke]

News Corps has launched a site in Australia using the name of a well known search engine in the states and Canada:

[truelocal.com.au...]

Compare to the orginal TrueLocal:

[truelocal.com...]

According to some info WebmasterWorld has obtained, News Corp *was* aware of TrueLocal.coms existence prior to the aussie launch. News corp would not respond to requests for an interview.

[celgins]

Hmmmm. Interesting!

I'm guessing copyright laws, name registration laws, and other issues will arise because of this.

[your_store]

Pretty sleazy move. Hopefully, the original TL can spin this for some publicity. I'd hate to go up against News Corp's lawyers though.

[timchuma]

I saw this in the local paper yesterday. I am probably not going to use their search engine anyway as it only takes paid advertisers that were already in the newspaper.

[EliteWeb]

[smh.com.au...]

SMH an Australian news company has written an article about this conflict titled will the real truelocal please stand up.

[EliteWeb]

If they knew then im sure it was part of their plan to do this, gain the media attention then when forced changed their name but by then they have gotten huge exposure. :/

[digitalghost]

>>gain the media attention then when forced

if forced

A court might decide that True Local took no steps to protect the name in Australia and therefore, deserves no protection. I'm sure it won't be hard to find attorneys that make compelling arguments for both sides. Give 'em hell Jake.

[bears5122]

Are you sure this is News Corps as in Rupert Murdoch? I've only seen News Ltd in the articles. If it is News Corp, good luck. If it does hit some big news outlets and creates some buzz though, it may actually be the best thing to happen to them.

[wheel]

From the article:
>>>According to sources at the Toronto-based TrueLocal "
Toronto based? They moved? :)

>>hundreds of Australians" have already attempted to sign up to its service after mistaking it for the recently launched directory listing service from News Ltd.

Lol. This is the biggest reason why this was a mistake on the Aussie's part. Anyone recall BakeJake's presentation in Vegas on 101 twisted things to do to people you don't really want at your website? I'd be surprised if they had a case legally, but even if they pull that off somehow, they've still got to worry about the online side of things.

(*)I'm thinking if Jake captures australian traffic and send them to <some funky> site, that'll do some interesting things to folks looking to advertise on the .au site who mistyped.

[edited by: tedster at 6:42 pm (utc) on Feb. 2, 2006]

[sparticus]

Don't know if anyone has been back and checked the original truelocal.com site, but it seems pretty 'true blue' to me... I smell lawyers somewhere nearby.

[rickagain]

I thought I heard someone bought 'Australia Local Search' - which started as part of Yahoo Australia (it's still there).

This truelocal seems to contain the same data...

Good news for all who paid top dollar to be listed.

One of the 3 national TV stations has become part of Yahoo Australia (one of the others is part of MSN in Australia).

With such a small population and cross media ownership laws... some big media companies don't seem to like others (personally, I can't keep track of who's who).

But both 'truelocal' & the Yahoo/TV station happened at the same time.

[Rogi]

It's just another 'yellow pages' except:
- with no traffic (compared to ~2million/month) and
- no pagerank (compared to pr7) and
- no inbound links (compared to ~2,500).

I don't really see their USP?

(all 'compared to' stuff above relates to the AU yellow pages)

[aus_dave]

Are you sure this is News Corps as in Rupert Murdoch? I've only seen News Ltd in the articles.

News Limited is the Australian newspaper publishing arm of News Corporation. As you say, good luck ;).

Aside from any copyright issues relating to the web site design itself, I would say the truelocal.com owners have very little grounds for complaint. News Limited have a genuine claim to the .com.au version of the domain name, based on what their site offers. This namespace is more restricted than some others but it is still on a first come, first served basis.

They have also submitted trademark applications to protect the name/logo, so you could say they were well prepared.