One for the small guy
August 3, 2001 5:29 AM Subscribe
One for the small guy Mr A.R. Mani beats Armani for domain name.
Don't be so sure he had the opportunity to sell the name to Armani. Many companies just start legal action without any forewarning. Maybe if Armani had made Mr. Mani a decent offer for the name, he would have let it go.
posted by goto11 at 7:07 AM on August 3, 2001
posted by goto11 at 7:07 AM on August 3, 2001
personally im glad Armani lost this. The giorgioarmani web site is bad enough! Death by pop ups....
posted by monkeyJuice at 7:25 AM on August 3, 2001
posted by monkeyJuice at 7:25 AM on August 3, 2001
NOW he can turn around and offer it to them for a million dollars. no squatting for him.
posted by o2b at 9:02 AM on August 3, 2001
posted by o2b at 9:02 AM on August 3, 2001
I believe Armani offered Mr. Mani the princely sum of CAD$7600 for the domain before calling in the lawyers. Unfortunately, I can't find the story on the Vancouver Sun site, because their were some things that struck me as odd about it. Apparently Mr. Mani was only interested in using the domain for his e-mail address, and did not want to use armani.com for his own website because "everyone would come there looking for Armani clothes and would be disappointed." He apparently offered to let Armani use the domain for their website provided he could keep the e-mail address.
I'm not suggesting that he isn't completely within his rights to do any of those things, or that he shouldn't have won the case - but his logic behind wanting to keep the domain did seem a little strange.
posted by pascal at 9:08 AM on August 3, 2001
I'm not suggesting that he isn't completely within his rights to do any of those things, or that he shouldn't have won the case - but his logic behind wanting to keep the domain did seem a little strange.
posted by pascal at 9:08 AM on August 3, 2001
The deed may already be done DNS Domain 'www.armani.com' is invalid: Host not found (authoritative). Anyone else get through?
posted by rschram at 10:00 AM on August 3, 2001
posted by rschram at 10:00 AM on August 3, 2001
rschram - no. A.R. Mani never set up a website using the domain - he just used it for e-mail.
posted by pascal at 12:25 PM on August 3, 2001
posted by pascal at 12:25 PM on August 3, 2001
For a similar story, see Uzi Nissan's battle with the Japanese car company: http://www.ncchelp.org/
posted by ljromanoff at 1:27 PM on August 3, 2001
posted by ljromanoff at 1:27 PM on August 3, 2001
A.R. Mani never set up a website using the domain - he just used it for e-mail. I don't understand the claim then that he intended to confuse...
posted by rschram at 2:18 PM on August 3, 2001
posted by rschram at 2:18 PM on August 3, 2001
Hello All,
I am A.R.Mani. Just to set the record straight, I was offered US$750 and a suit (which was subsequently withdrawn) for the domain. When I refused, I was threatened with legal action and was nearly forced to surrender. When GA Modefine (the holding co.) became unreasonable, I did a Bugs Bunny "Of course you realise, this means WAR!"
I have never put up a website because I didn't want to pay for thousands of hits that would never benefit me.
In today's Globe & Mail
To be fair, I have no issue with Mr. Armani. He is perhaps the best of the designers when it comes to issues that are important to me. He's also really good at what he does. I did take exception, however, to the behaviour of his holding company and that led to the battle that I won. Have I won the war? I don't know. But I'll fight as long as I can.
All the Best,
Anand
posted by Anand at 10:18 PM on August 22, 2001
I am A.R.Mani. Just to set the record straight, I was offered US$750 and a suit (which was subsequently withdrawn) for the domain. When I refused, I was threatened with legal action and was nearly forced to surrender. When GA Modefine (the holding co.) became unreasonable, I did a Bugs Bunny "Of course you realise, this means WAR!"
I have never put up a website because I didn't want to pay for thousands of hits that would never benefit me.
In today's Globe & Mail
To be fair, I have no issue with Mr. Armani. He is perhaps the best of the designers when it comes to issues that are important to me. He's also really good at what he does. I did take exception, however, to the behaviour of his holding company and that led to the battle that I won. Have I won the war? I don't know. But I'll fight as long as I can.
All the Best,
Anand
posted by Anand at 10:18 PM on August 22, 2001
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If big companies like Armani didn't have the foresight to secure domain names early on they have no one to blame but themselves. As long as there's no real cybersquatting involved and there's a legitimate claim to the domain name, "first in time" makes a lot of sense.
posted by msgoff at 5:58 AM on August 3, 2001