Dell has instructed local notebook and accessories retailer, The Notebook Company (TNC), to remove its logo from its Web sites with immediate effect.
According to a statement from TNC, Dell does not recognise the retailer as a registered or authorised partner.
TNC, however, maintains that it sells Dell products through the correct channels and buys new Dell products from official distributors Tarsus, Pinnacle Micro and Drive Control.
“These companies are also accredited dealers and have full rights to sell to The Notebook Company - with some doing so for 20 years,” notes TNC in a statement.
“This is rather alarming. We have been selling Dell computers for some time now,” says TNC MD Christopher Riley. “It is one of the many ranges we sell - and we advertise all company logos on our Web sites.
“We want to sell computers - that is the game we are in. I am not sure why Dell is being so pedantic with regards to the use of their logo. I would have thought they were also in the business of selling computers.”
Riley adds that he has been trying to find a way around the dispute in order to continue to use the logo to sell Dell products. TNC has also confirmed it has applied to become a certified Dell partner.
Trademark infringement
Yolanda van Wyk, head of legal for emerging markets at Dell, previously said the reproduction and use of the Dell logo by TNC is unauthorised and, therefore, amounts to copyright and trademark infringement.
She adds that the harm is in TNC not being a registered partner or an authorised distributor of Dell products.
Van Wyk says TNC registered the domain delllaptop.co.za, which incorporates Dell's trademark, without its authorisation.
“Our trademark attorneys, Adams & Adams, were instructed to request TNC to remove the Dell logo from its Web sites and to cancel the domain in question.”
TNC has been given a phasing out period of three months to cancel the www.delllaptop.co.za domain and transfer its contents to its other sites, www.notebook.co.za and www.laptop.co.za.
Asked if he would remove the Dell logo from TNC's Web sites, Riley says: “We are not looking for a war with Dell. Litigation would be expensive and we are very small compared to Dell.
“As a businessman and company owner, I find their pedantic attitude alarming. At the end of the day, we would like to continue to sell Dell products - as it is a good product range - but I think the message they are sending to the market is not a good one.”
At time of publication, the Dell logo was still being used on TNC's Web sites notebook.co.za and laptop.co.za.
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