Free net surfers hit a title wave as lawyers act on use of name

By CHRIS BARTON

The country's newest free internet provider, Splash Net, which launched last Thursday, has been forced to go on hold because of a trademark dispute.

The free provider's website stopped signing up new users on Saturday night and its site now carries the message: "Due to an inadvertent breach of an international trademark we are unable to use the name Splash Net. As of midnight July 21, 2000, we will suspend applications for free internet access until we are ready to relaunch."

Managing director Matthew Hobbs said the 500 or so users who had already signed up would continue to get free internet access and web-based e-mail.

The Splash Net name appears to infringe the trademark of the US-based Splashnet, which is an application service provider (ASP) of customer relationship management (CRM) software.

A New Zealand operation was publicly launched at the end of February by The Great Elk Company, which changed its company name to Stayinfront Asia Pacific in May. The company is 80 per cent owned by US-based Stayinfront.

Its Splashnet service allows businesses to rent CRM software online for $95 per user a month and is hosted in New Zealand by Unisys. An Auckland change management and knowledge management consultancy, Strategic Resource Development Group, has tested Splashnet for the past year.

Mr Hobbs said that despite registering the company Splash Net, the internet domain name, and searching the Companies Office web site for trademarks, he was still caught out.

He received a lawyer's letter on Friday advising him the Splashnet trademark was "registration pending."

He decided to shut the service down while he took legal advice.

"Personally I'd rather be safe than sorry."

He is determined to re-launch.

"We've put quite a bit of marketing work into the name and the theme on the web site.

"But if they do have the trademark, we may have to change the name."

Splash Net is owned by Mercury Telecommunications, a company set up by Mr Hobbs and mainly Australian investors, to launch internet service provider (ISP) Quicksilver in February this year. It caters to the home access market with a flat rate service staring at $24.95 a month. Mercury also offers national and international toll service through a wholesaling agreement with Clear.

Links:

www.splash.net.nz

www.splashnet.com

www.splashnet.co.nz