Kraft Foods wins domain from French seamstress

[RJ]

NANTERRE, FRANCE -- A seamstress in southeast France must hand over rights to the website www.milka.fr to U.S. food company Kraft Foods, vendor of Milka brand chocolate, a court ruled yesterday. Milka Budimir, who runs two seamstress shops in and near the town of Valence, was ordered to cede the Internet domain name to the Northfield, Ill., food giant within a month or face fines.

The court in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre ruled that Budimir "made unjustified use of the registered trademark Milka that is owned by Kraft Foods."

Kraft had accused Budimir of "cybersquatting" -- a practice in which web users pay small amounts of money to obtain Internet domain names to make a quick profit from those who may want to use them. In some cases, the names are worth millions of dollars.

Gerard Haas, a lawyer for Budimir, said: "We are sorry to see that the law of brands triumphs over the right -- and the first name -- of people."

Lawyers for Kraft had argued the chocolate's name was protected under intellectual property law and said any unauthorized use would dilute and damage its reputation.

The court rejected Budimir's effort to wrest $133,720 US from Kraft in damages and legal costs. She had argued the company harassed her for the last two years.

http://www.milka.fr/

Source: London Free Press

 

[Mark]

My French is a bit rusty - But that just plain Sux - Part Deux ....

 

[Dave_Z]

merdeux...(he he he, that's what I gathered as French for sh**...)

That's one disadvantage when you and the complaining party live in the same
area: you can be sued by the latter for whatever reason.

 

[RJ]

There's more case information on milka.fr and Kraft's site, but I can't read a faire eau of French.

 

[Mark]

I tried using the Babel Translator at alta - But it won't work right - lol -

But - I will think about this the next time I pick up Salad Dressing etc ... at the Store !!! ~ Thx for the Info -RJ-

 

[.X.]

This is a perfect example of how greedy big industrys act."Milka" The ladys name,I guess next they will chasing everyone that has cow in thier domain name staking claim to that too.These are the type of stupid things that are a waste of time and money in my opinion.Totally ridiculous in my opinion.Protect your intelectual property yes i agree,Take action on a something that in no way effects them,I disagree. Mac&cheese anyone LOL.

 

[SirSpider]

Shame on Kraft Foods for acting with no more regard than a bully in a school-yard. That news article will definitely influence my choice of which brand NOT to buy at the grocery store.

 

[Mike_Wiseman]

lol, i hate the french language, i didnt know kraft made chocolate? Or did i just read that wrong??? I though they just made that kraft dinner stuf?

 

[JMJ]

Very poor decision and shame on Kraft for bullying their way into the name. Makes me wish I had Rick Swartz's CorporateBully.com right about now.

 

[Jeffrey]

Her lawyer has failed to defend her. Milka is her first name, and she has the right to use it.

 

[Raf]

That's totally ridiculous, their taking something away from her just because it has her first name it. Yikes, what is the world becoming these days with trademarking names.

 

[Argos]

Shame on Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods est absolument dégueulasse... and they say that the site of Mrs. Milka Budimir is damaging their reputation ??? They ruin themselves their image de marque in hijacking the name !
What to do against them ? At least stop buying their chocolate, EMBARGO !!!

 

[Prosperous]

They're milka-ing her for all she's worth.
No wait, that sounds somewhat perverted.
Er..

 

[LeeRyder]

wow...seems the french courts and judges are just as corrupt and illegitimate as ours.

well, add Kraft to the list of companies not to buy from. thats just wrong what they did.

Nissan-theives
Kraft-thieves

ill have stephany interpret the webpage shortly.

 

[Ben42]

I wonder if McDonald's will grab Mcdonald.com from someone named McDonald?

Any girls named Candy? Watch out, Willy Wonka might be after you!

 

[Wesley]

Ugh, that's awful... Doesn't Kraft own an NBA team? Anybody know the name? Heh, if this became common knowledge, they'd loose so much business They had no right to the domain.