Competitors' On Virus

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - We say "Not always"

Alden rowing shells, a company claiming over 30 years in the rowing business and known by many as the early innovators in open water and recreational rowing, has new owners. Well, actually the new crew has paddled the Alden barge for at least a good 2-3 years now. Prior to, and in early stages of the current ownership, the norm was a cordial - not chummy - relationship between Alden and RUM International, importers/distributors of Virus Rowing Sculls.

And now the rest of the story -

Early June 2003, one of our Canadian Customers alerted us (Thank you!) to the fact that the domain name (URL) www.rowvirus.com would direct the web user to Alden's Website where they would see a promotion for model that was an attempt to copy the Virus Turbo II Classic.

Stunned, we researched it and found one more URL, www.virusrowing.com, leading to the same Alden page. This was not just simply about a minor infraction of using our name as key words in the background of websites which are used for positioning on search engines - this was two registered domain names clearly misusing the registered trademark VIRUS. In Internet lingo this is called cybersquatting and is illegal by both US and International law.

A "cease and desist" letter was sent to the Alden owners as our first step in stopping this problem. The e-mail response from Maine read reasonably, though provided no explanation - how could that be explained anyway. The owners/directors confirmed receipt of our letter with..."we have complied" ..."those domain names are no longer active". This from Mr. Ryan Jarvis, Director, Alden Rowing Shells, LLC.

In a second step, we offered to take these URL's over and reimburse Alden for the expenses for registration and transfers - ( we are talking no more than $140 dollars for the registrations). "Not so" was in essence Mr. Jarvis reply. According to advice from Alden's web developers they should ask a "minimum of $1500.00 per URL" and "if that sounded reasonable to us, they would talk or else, they would just leave the URL's the way they are".

Does that not read like extortion? They use our trademark and then tell us they'll sell it to us at inflated prices?

OK - we said, leave them as they are - no longer active.

See the full text of this exchange

We thought that would be the end of it.

Well, in October 2003 a brain storm must have hit Kittery ME, for something made the Alden directors change their minds.

Once more, one of our customers alerted us (Thank you!) to the fact that the URL's were once again active. The Alden director's response to one letter, expressing disbelieve by this rower (the owner of two sculls, an Alden and a Virus) was short and clear:

"That's a shame. We are running a business. Take care."
Ryan Jarvis
Director
Alden Rowing Shells
# 1 in Recreational Rowing for over 30 Years.

See the text of this exchange

Same thing. It baffled us. It made us mad. It made us dig deeper for remedy. We soon found that Internet law is far from offering easy or inexpensive relief from disreputable, stop-at-nothing business people causing big problems with relatively simple, inexpensive maneuvers. Complex and costly legal procedures need to be employed, with little hope for lasting resolution. Besides, rules and regulations do not prevent those who want to misbehave ethically. Unfortunately, there's no Internet equivalent of duct tape for a quick and inexpensive fix. So we have left it to date and so it will remain until we find a clear and affordable legal avenue. No need to brood over such an obvious immoral practice.

We thought you, all current and potential rowers, might be interested to know.

Thanks for taking notice.

Urs and Renee Wunderli
RUM International Inc.
Virus Rowing Sculls - rowing should be for everyone.
WWW.ROWVIRUSBOATS.COM

See the latest Chapter in the on-going saga...

The epinions story

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