As mentioned here
earlier this week, the Digital Divas
launched a massive Internet campaign known as "Diva and Goliath" to stop Microsoft's
infringement on their trademark through the
"Microsoft Digital Diva" consumer technology
service. The Digital Divas were founded by Dana
Whitmire in 1997. They provide computer and Internet assistance from their
website and promote the services of their members, all of whom are experienced and
successful computer professionals. Internet Brothers is delighted to clear the air of
any lingering confusion by presenting this exclusive interview with the Digital Divas
through their spokesperson Faith A. Kaminsky. [IB] Can you take us through a Digital Divas timeline? [IB] What is the ultimate goal of the Diva and Goliath campaign? [IB] How is this different from the eToy/Etoys flap? [IB] In January 2000 Microsoft debuted Stacy Elliott as their "Digital
Diva" during Chairman Bill Gates' keynote speech at the Consumer
Electronics show in Las Vegas. Have you had any contact with Ms.
Elliott? [IB] A corporation the size of Microsoft has considerable research
resources. Obviously they should, and may have done some
trademark and domain searching before launching their project. Is
it possible they simply weren't aware of your trademark and
purpose? In other words, could this be an honest mistake on their part? [IB] Judging from the growing list of links on the Diva and Goliath
supporter page, there
appears to be quite a backing of your stance in this matter. Are you surprised by
the response? Are your servers ready for the load when the story goes national?
[IB] How can the average webhead help? Internet Brothers sincerely thanks Faith and Dana for taking time from their
extremely busy schedules to help clarify these points for you. Stay tuned —
this story is gathering momentum and beginning to reach critical mass.
6th of May 2000
[DD] October 1997 — Dana Whitmire founds the Digital Divas.
The Digital Divas had a website starting at that time. In the
beginning, it was hosted on Dana's domain.
June 1998 — the Digital Divas buy the domain name digitaldivas.com.
October 1, 1998 — the first annual Grey
Day explodes onto the web, including extensive press coverage.
June 1, 1999 — the Divas launch the
D'Zine, providing online articles,
tutorials, and web and computer assistance every month — this in
addition to the services provided by each member on their own site, and
promoted by the Digital Divas.
April 17, 2000 — one of the Divas discovers the "Microsoft Digital Diva"
site — which was apparently launched in early April.
April 25, 2000 — The Digital Divas, represented by Moses & Singer
(www.mosessinger.com) send a cease and
desist letter to Microsoft, with a reply deadline of May 1, 2000.
May 1, 2000 — Having received no response to our claims from Microsoft,
the Divas launch their Diva and Goliath Campaign to garner support,
contributions to a legal defense fund, and possible legal representation.
[DD] Our ultimate goal with the campaign is to have Microsoft stop using the
"Digital Diva" name in promoting the same services that we supply from
our website. We cannot stress enough that this is NOT a domain name
dispute. It is a trademark infringement dispute, meaning that it is
their use of the Digital Diva name in combination with offering the same
services that we offer.
[DD] Both etoy.com and digitaldivas.com were on the scene first. That is
where the similarity ends. In the eToy/Etoys dispute, it was clear that
eToy and Etoys were providing completely different services. eToy did
not sell toys. We do not seek, as Etoys did, to prevent Microsoft from
using the domain name digitaldiva.com — that is really just a possible
side effect of this dispute. We are seeking to have Microsoft stop
offering competing services under the same name. Etoys sought to
prevent use of the eToy domain name solely on the basis of the domain
name — not on the basis of a trademark infringement claim or an unfair
competition claim.
[DD] No, we have not. We would also like to note that the digitaldiva.com
site was not, to our knowledge, published by Microsoft until April.
[DD] We really don't think so. We have just posted some screen shots of
search results on the main page of our
campaign site. The Digital Divas are the first listing in seven major search
engines when the term "digital diva" is searched for. Indeed, in the
MSN search engine the Digital Divas are at
the top of the same search result, and are listed by MSN as the top most popular
site for the search on "digital diva." Given these results, it is hard to imagine
that a company with Microsoft's resources did not know of our existence.
[DD] We are extremely pleased by the response of the web community, and we
are not at all surprised by it. As a group and individually we have
been interacting with and helping members of the web community for many
years and we know the sense of purpose and determination that is out
there. We are extremely grateful for all of the support we have
received. We should note that the Internet Brothers have been amazing
and strong supporters of our campaign, and for that we are eternally
thankful.
We expect our story to go national this Monday (May 8, 2000), and are taking every
precaution to make sure our servers can handle the expected load.
[DD] In several ways. Linking to our site and spreading the word is
extremely important. Expressing their feelings about this issue to
Microsoft wouldn't hurt either. We are not meaning to encourage spam of
any kind, however, the MS Digital Diva can be contacted at
diva@microsoft.com. Finally, just by
signing up for an account with PayPal
(www.paypal.com) using our
referring link,
PayPal will deposit US$5.00 in our legal fund account. Of course, donations in
any amount are greatly appreciated. Please see
our site for more information on this.
--- end interview ---
