Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, wanted to take over the teslashop.com domain from the Pole. Polish entrepreneur Korneliusz Wieteska maintains that his domain was registered only for private, non-commercial purposes. The website, which operates under this name, was intended solely to establish contact with other electric car enthusiasts and share experiences with using them, as well as help in finding or replacing parts.
Tesla sued a Polish entrepreneur
“Let’s get one thing straight at the beginning – we are crazy about Teslas. We love them, admire them and drive them with wild pleasure. We are also excited about the development of electromobility and it fires our imagination more than Seicento in gas,” the author himself writes about the website.
According to Elon Musk’s lawyers, the website illegally uses his trademark and misleads customers. A case was brought against him before the American National Arbitration Center. Tesla believes that both the website’s logo and its domain are confusingly similar to those of the American company. The original Tesla store has the domain shop.tesla.com.
learned that the court dismissed Tesla’s lawsuit and agreed with the Pole. – The ruling is final. Tesla can neither appeal nor sue at this time. May pursue other trademark claims in court. This could be compensation, provided, of course, they prove that they suffer these damages – he said in an interview with Polish Radio.
The court agreed with the Pole
The main reason was that the Polish entrepreneur does not make any profits from running the website and does not impersonate the Tesla brand. – The court stated that it did not see any signs of bad will on my client’s part. There was no desire to exploit the name “Tesla” or its popularity. There is no commercial gain from this site. The court will certainly not find any competitive activity here, explained Rafał Sikora, who represented Korneliusz Wieteska.
Moreover, it was noted that the disputed domain name was registered in 2006, i.e. earlier than the earliest date of registration of the Tesla mark, which, according to the Polish side, took place in 2013. This is one of the reasons why the lawsuit was considered “an attempt at a hostile takeover by a larger entity taking advantage of its market dominance.” However, it was admitted that the disputed domain name was confusingly similar to Tesla’s trademark.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
