Acronyms: Diabetes Education Long Life Customer?

Case: D2002-0363

Domain(s): dellamerica.com and 87 (!) others

Complainant: Dell Computer Corporation

Respondent: MTO C.A. and Diabetes Education Long Life

The Defense:

February 20, 2002:  email to Jones Day from Mr. McShand in response to the cease and desist letter of February 12.  The salient points of that letter are:

"Dell" is a generic word.  It’s dictionary definition means "A small, secluded, wooded valley."

- Many hundreds of companies are doing business under names which include the word "dell".  For example, dell purse book, dell crossword puzzles etc.

- The Complainant has no entitlement to claim exclusive ownership of the word "dell".

- The Respondent is not in the business of manufacturing computers.

- DELL is an acronym for "Diabetes Education Long Life".

-  The Respondent's web pages are directed to US citizens suffering from or concerned with diabetes.

...5.1.4 The Respondent's website

The front page of this website is exhibited to the Complaint.  It is captioned:

"Children with Diabetes Type I

The Dell or wooded valley is fragile like our children.  Education is key for long life."

The web page then gives a synopsis of Mr. McShand's story of his son's illness [see, paragraph 4.5.2 above] under the caption.

"Ian's Story"

Then under another caption

"Our DELL Sites"

the web page lists over 60 of the DELL prefixed domain names in issue in the Complaint.