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Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment Corp, based Ohio, says that confusion between its website, utube.com, and youtube.com is damaging its reputation and costing the company thousands of dollars.
Since Google announced in early October that it plans to purchase YouTube, visitors to utube.com have skyrocketed, from a few thousand per month to more than 70,000 per day, Universal Tube said in its suit.
I wish I had that problem!
UTube Sues YouTube [pcadvisor.co.uk]
[edited by: engine at 6:50 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2006]
[edit reason] updated url [/edit]
Is Utube from the US?
How about adding some videos as well? ;)
They could even sell the domain name to youtube.
I can't see them winning, but Google may find an inventive way of solving the problem.
They could even sell the domain name to youtube.
Have you read the Adsense.com thread yet?
Seriously, why didn't they just say to Google listen heres my story - please buy this domain name for a good reasonable amount and change they're domain name?
Imo the only reason they are doing this is for publicity. On that note OMFG OMG (etc, etc, etc) YouTube will NEED to change they're name. UTube, get a grip.
PS. Can they sue me for posting what I think on the internet? Serious question.
Welcome to UTUBE.com!The Original Tube and Pipe Machinery Site, UTUBE™
They're proud of that UTUBE name.
And we run an industry site sort of like theirs. If it got trashed by some monster pop phenomena like that we'd have to do something. Can't just call it quits.
Worse, "UTUBE" is contained within YOUTUBE.
Then there is always the little "tm" next to UTUBE, which appears to have been using the mark long before the now-tainted domain G is buying.
Should be interesting how this plays out, or should I say "pays out"?
[edited by: briang959 at 9:46 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2006]
Seriously, why didn't they just say to Google listen heres my story - please buy this domain name for a good reasonable amount and change they're domain name?
Not 100% sure, but I heard an interview with this guy (prez of company) last night. It sounded like (again not positive) that they had tried to contact both YouTube and then Google about this issue. I know I had heard another interview with the a few months ago where he was complaining about the traffic then too. This is not a new issue and they didn't just throw it out there out of the blue.
I think they were ignored so now they are taking this route so that the higher ups at both companies have to take notice.
But - pretty much - the only reason Google bought YouTube was for *THE* domain name! Because the name is so popular and well known, they would profit from that. They aren't so much interested in the actual content and concept, but for users and their opinion of the place - not to forgot their visiting frequency
Try again... no content & no concept = no users. You think if they changed YouTube to a site about makeup the users would stay? Every YouTube freak I know is interested in 1 thing: entertainment. They don't care if it's called YouTube or WidgetTown.
"Universal Tube asks the court to stop YouTube from using the Youtube.com domain and turn it over to Universal Tube."
What are they going to do with the millions of users a day? Someone didnt think this through.
Try again... no content & no concept = no users. You think if they changed YouTube to a site about makeup the users would stay? Every YouTube freak I know is interested in 1 thing: entertainment. They don't care if it's called YouTube or WidgetTown.
Of cause it needs to content to make the users stay, but that is not why google bought them, they bought them so they could take advantage of the well-known name. Google's Video doesn't have much of an "voice" and people seems to generally like YouTube more; they've created a more succesful image (and it is NOT only because of their content "design". Of cause the domain is important, if you ask a person what "YouTube" is, most have heard about it. A lot of fan sites are commmited to the name too.
Changing the name is not just a small thing... at all..
"Universal Tube & Rollform" billion
to read all about it.
Looking at uTube's site, I'm guessing that without YouTube in the picture it would be a very quiet b2b site, perhaps serving a few thousands or tens of thousands of very highly targeted visitors a month. Now they're having to suffer a traffic onslaught perhaps hundreds of times larger, potentially without ANY overlap. After all, how many pipe industry insiders use YouTube regularly enough to try and type it in?
[edited by: Edwin at 11:42 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2006]
It would be more understandable if they were actually selling something related or anything in that matter. Honestly don't see what the problem is, getting bad traffic. Perhaps this law suit was just to attract the attention they need for more business?
If they were smart, they'd put up a very simple small index page at utube.com, to sort the bona fide visitors from the youtube traffic. This page could potentially have ads; for poetry's sake, let's say Ad Sense ads.
Or, they could just say "that's life," and upgrade their hosting account, while smiling & realizing that the world doesn't owe them anything.
Instead, they're suing. It's Google's "fault." Go figure.
if only these people knew what a goldmine they were sitting on!
They know. They have had several offers for the domain already. But I can see their side.
First of all, there is probably plenty of printed materials with their domain name on it. If they just dumped the domain, they would have to reprint all of that and there is no way to recall all of that material that has already been distributed as well.
On top of that, how much would you pay for a 5 letter domain that actually has a meaning? They would not be able to find a suitable replacememnt domain that reflected their brand and has the high value easy to remember value going for it. Just not possible in today's world.
As far as the bandwidth, think of it this way. An established company has been in a spot for a very long time. Suddenly a trendy and popular club pops up next door. So popular in fact that the visitors to he club park on the other company's property and fill up its parking lots. The company's cliets and employees can't find parking and can't get in. The people who do park there would never shop in the estabished company's store. The parking lot is getting torn up and it is costing the company money in both maintanance of the lot and lost business.
In the offline world, that company posts notices and get police orders to keep the club goers off their property. They may even have cars towed or work out a deal with the club where the club rents the parking lot. They don't just "suck it up" and figure it is part of business.
Here is an article about what I was talking about earlier. I really do think they are only doing this to get YouTube (now Google) to sit down and talk about this. [money.cnn.com...]
Of course they are. Most industrial types aren't that web savvy. They're not interested in selling adwords or putting pop-up ads on their site to make a quick buck. They want that site for THEIR customers and THEIR distributors. They don't need a bunch of knuckleheads who don't know the difference between youtube and utube dragging down their site and sending thousands of emails wasting their employees time asking "what happened to all the videos"?
They tried contacting Google and just like anyone else who tries to contact those pompass west coast snobs, they were ignored. Personally, I hope they win big time.
[edited by: Powdork at 9:25 am (utc) on Nov. 3, 2006]
DUMBOOS!
