Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, which has its web site hosted at Utube.com, is suing Google’s YouTube over domain name similarity and the harm which has been caused by YouTube’s popularity to Utube.com.
As YouTube has grown in popularity, Utube.com’s site has become paralyzed, especially after the Google YouTube deal. Essentially, about 2 million people a month are hearing the name “YouTube” and typing utube.com into their browsers.
“This is an enormous expense and distraction for us. Contact with our customers has been disrupted, so I fear we have lost sales,” Universal Tube owner Ralph Girkins said in a statement. “We have even been contacted by police in Australia accusing us of having child pornography on our Web site. I resent this personally and this confusion is hurting our business.”
News.com reports that “The lawsuit asks that YouTube stop using the youtube.com domain name or reimburse Universal Tube for the cost of establishing a new corporate identity.”
Sound ridiculous? Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment says that the demand on the site created by YouTube’s popularity is leading to lost sales. Being in the niche industrial equipment sector, a sale lost for Universal Tube could mean losing $150,000.
