Re: DEC vs AltaVista

Timothy Hughes <thughes[_at_]gtlaw.com.au> wrote:
>
> In late 1996 Digital filed suit against AltaVista Inc in the US
> District Court in Massachusetts arguing that . alleges that ATI's Web
> site confuses Internet users and advertisers as to the source of the
> AltaVista Internet search service.
>
> Does anyone on this list have more information about this action?

The action by DEC against a small California company has more to it than what you mention. This software company used Alta Vista as an identifier for their business before Digital's search service was launched. In filings with the Patent and Trademark Office, DEC claims a date of first use of December 14, 1996, subsequent to Alta Vista's adoption of the term to describe their programming services company.

In trademark parlance, Alta Vista is the senior user and DEC the junior.

In March, 1996 DEC actually licensed the term from them (which I believe DEC may now regret because it may bolster Alta Vista's claim of trademark ownership). The March 1996 license was part of Digital's acquisition of all trademark rights in the term "Alta Vista" from Alta Vista. This "Sale and leaseback" deal worked for a long time - if you deem the time ink dries to be long. As noted, Digital now claims the company breached the license agreement. You used to be able to visit the tiny Alta Vista home page which actually discussed the relationship with Digital. However, the site can't be accessed any longer.

I think the essence of the problem was that Digital failed to realize how immensely successful its search engine service would be and the incredible value (and problems) it would create as far as name confusion for tiny Alta Vista. While I like DEC and its equipment (any computer with more RAM than my hard drive (1G) is pretty cool), I think they really dropped the ball here in managing the acquisition and management of this incredibly valuable mark.

Jamie Powers
<jamie[_at_]srgpe.com> Received on Wed May 28 1997 - 17:09:23 GMT