In order to compete for a website domain name, General Electric (GE) and 24-year-old Ningbo boss Ye Wenlong recently filed a court order. The domain name registered with RMB 80 was regarded as the lifeline by Ye Wenlong. He refused the high purchase price from distributors such as Philips Osram and rejected the purchase price of GE for 1.5 million. GE also refused to contract Ye Wenlong. The website has become a proposal for GE agents. In June of this year, GE's application for arbitration to win the domain name was rejected. At the end of last month, Ye Wenlong officially sued GE for GE's use of the domain name gelighting.com.cn without permission, and began to fight back. The struggle between the young entrepreneurs and the Fortune 500 companies is called ants.
Young sales 80 yuan registered domain name
The domain name gelighting.com.cn is the target of GE and Ye Wenlong. Although GE owns gelighting.com, the .cn version of this domain name does not necessarily belong to GE, nor is it the Chinese version of the gelighting website. The owner of gelighting.com.cn is Ye Wenlong, 24 years old.
In 2006, Ye Wenlong, who graduated from Ningbo Vocational and Technical College, went to a lighting company in Ningbo to do sales. He learned the software and he knew the power of the network. In an interview with the Daily Economic News, Ye Wenlong told reporters that in order to promote his sales performance, he decided to build a website so that more buyers can find him through the website.
When registering the domain name, in order to cooperate with the general electric appliance in the name of Ningbo company, he combined it into gelighting according to the abbreviation of General Electric's translated name GeneralElectrics, plus the meaning of lighting. When he registered, he found that gelighting.com has been Registered, and did not think much about adding a .cn.
On December 20, 2006, Ye Wenlong successfully registered gelighting.com.cn in the domain name China, and only spent 80 yuan.
At that time, GE might know nothing about Ye Wenlong. For GE, Ye Wenlong recalled that he was only vaguely heard about it, and he did not know what to do.
Soon, Ye Wenlong founded his own Ningbo Jiangdong Dagang Fenghu Electronic Business Department, continued to do lighting business, and continued to use the gelighting.com.cn website he founded.
Ye Wenlong told reporters that the website is very important to his business, and about 80% to 90% of customers come through the website. He was fascinated by software and network technology, and spent a lot of effort to optimize this website. He once hired four or five people to do various maintenance work on the website.
My technology is relatively strong, using Baidu, Google search lighting appliances, we are often on the first page, business is very hot, the website is my lifeline. Ye Wenlong said.
GE is willing to buy 1.5 million domain names
Ye Wenlong told reporters that he started to have trouble in September last year. He received a lot of calls for a return, accusing him of quality problems with the products he sold.
A number of Edison series lamps were the most frequently complained, and what confused Ye Wenlong was that he did not sell the product. Until the customer came to the door, he discovered that the lamp was produced by GE, and his website was printed with his website name gelighting.com.cn. After the customer found the quality problem, according to this website, I found Ye Wenlong asking for compensation.
Ye Wenlong found a phone call from GE's Shanghai headquarters and asked the customers who came to complain to find GE. But customers don't believe that similar complaints are getting more and more, and the industry and commerce department is also looking for customers to ask. Ye Wenlong is aware of the seriousness of the problem. He began to contact GE's Shanghai headquarters.
At the end of 2007, Cheng Weibao, Senior Legal Advisor of GE Asia Pacific, met with Ye Wenlong. At the interview, the other party made Ye Wenlong very angry. He told me that our website is absolutely impossible for you to use. How did this become their website? It is clearly my registration. Ye Wenlong said.
Ye Wenlong told reporters that Cheng Weibao proposed the solution: Give gelighting.com.cn to GE, and GE will compensate Ye Wenlong for RMB 1.5 million. After Ye Wenlong’s counter-offer of 5 million unsuccessful, he proposed to be the regional sales agent of GE’s products, and he was responsible for maintaining the website. This proposal was also vetoed by Cheng Weibao on the spot. He told Ye Wenlong that 100% of the domain name would not be used for him.
Arbitration result Ye Wenlong wins
The negotiations broke down and GE immediately filed an arbitration application with the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center.
I have been working on this website for two years and have achieved some benefits. Now I suddenly indirectly come to such a cold complaint. Ye Wenlong said in an interview with the media.
Ye Wenlong told reporters that he received more than 40 pages of complaints and more than 40 pages of talks about GE's long history and worldwide influence.
According to relevant lawyers, GE asserts its rights in arbitration on the grounds that its trademark GE and Ye Wenlong's domain name gelighting are confusing. In addition, GE also believes that it launched gelighting.com a few years ago in China, which is the reason for its gelighting.com.cn.
On June 6, 2008, the Asian Arbitration Institute gave the results and did not support the claimant’s claim that GE was required to transfer the domain name, and supported Ye Wenlong as the legal owner of the domain name.
The reporter search found that gelighting.com is currently linked to a website of GE, where you can find a Chinese website called GE Consumer & Industrial Products Group by selecting the region. Gelighting.com.cn is linked to the commonly used lighting electrical network established by Ye Wenlong. Most of the website content has been removed by Ye Wenlong. During this time, the website was in a mess. I removed the product information and prevented GE from taking the fuss to find me. Ye Wenlong said that the recent stage of business has been greatly affected, and he has no intention to take care of the website.
Sue GE infringement
In GE's complaint, Ye Wenlong noticed that GE's product packaging was publicly printed with gelighting.com.cn. At the end of August 2008, he formally sued GE and his Beijing dealers in the People's Court of Chaoyang District, Beijing. The two defendants were required to stop using the relevant domain names on the products and packaging, accessories, products and corporate image publicity materials and commercial plaques they produced and sold, and jointly compensated for the loss of 500,000 yuan.
Since the arbitration domain name is mine, you printed it on the package is a damage to my rights. Compensation for damage is not the most important thing. The key is to discuss it. Ye Wenlong said that he told reporters that he had written to GE's Shanghai headquarters again and again, asking for a written explanation, but there was no reply.
The world's top 500 cannot deprive my domain name in this way and bully our small business. Ye Wenlong said that he insisted that GE give a statement. But he also felt pressure and felt that he was too weak in front of a company like GE. He did not dare to sell his own goods during the lawsuit, and the losses were very large.
Recently, the Beijing Chaoyang District Court has officially accepted the case and is expected to open the trial next month.
Ye Wenlong told reporters that the State Intellectual Property Office sent four or five people to find him and wanted to make a TV film. He believed that this incident was a prominent case in the field of intellectual property. Experts believe that GE loses insufficient attention to the cn domain name and ignores the strategic significance of the cn domain name for China. However, Ye Wenlong saw the value of it. GE’s awakening was a bit late and cost a lot.
GE Response: gelighting.com.cn was used in 2005
The reporter contacted Cheng Weibao, senior legal counsel of GE Asia Pacific, yesterday, saying that he is no longer responsible for this case. Mr. Li Guowei, who is in charge of public relations affairs, asked the reporter to issue an interview outline, but as of press time, he could not give an official reply.
In the internal mail forwarded to the reporter, Li Guowei is still asking the relevant personnel to confirm that he has stopped using gelighting.com.cn.
Jack Chang, GE's head of intellectual property, replied that gelighting.com.cn was actually used in 2005, but has not yet confirmed more details.
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