[Posted with permission. --Declan] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: PAUL LEVY - ROYAL DUTCH SHELL DOMAIN NAMES CASE Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 15:49:11 +0100 From: John Donovan <john@private> Organization: Royaldutchshellplc.com To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan@private> 88 YEAR OLD WAR VETERAN WINS IMPORTANT DOMAIN NAME DECISION. My father and I, Alfred and John Donovan (both British nationals) have been involved in bouts of litigation for over a decade involving the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, culminating in proceedings against my father in respect of Shell related domain names. One of the domain names is royaldutchshellplc.com which happens to be the name of Shell's unified new $200 billion Company: Royal Dutch Shell Plc. The domain names are all registered in the USA. Shell has just lost the WIPO case by a unanimous verdict by a three person panel. The decision is posted on the WIPO website accessible via the link below. The second link provides information about our bouts of litigation with Shell. Lawyers provided services on a contingency basis on the most recent UK High Court Action. http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2005/d2005-0538.html http://shell2004.com/week32/shellnewstrackrecordinproceedings13august2005.ht m All of the Shell related domain names are directed at a single website - ShellNews.net, which contains over 5000 web pages of information, leaked Shell documents, articles, revelations etc - all focused on Shell. Links to a couple of our own recent articles about Shell are provided below. Fortunately Google News picks up our own stories, so they are read every day by a significant number of Shell employees, investors, stakeholders etc. ShellNews.net: A Black Eye for Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Lord Oxburgh in relation to Shell fraud allegations: Tuesday 16 August 2005: http://shell2004.com/week33/shellnewsfruadallegations16august2005.htm ShellNews.net: Secret Censorship on Royal Dutch Shell "Tell Shell" Internet Forum: Sunday 14 August 2005 http://shell2004.com/week32/shellnewstellshellcensorship14august2005.htm Some idea of the impact the site is having on Shell can be judged by the fact that eight Royal Dutch Shell companies have collectively obtained a Malaysian High Court Injunction in respect of postings on the site made by a Shell whistleblower, Dr John Huong, a Malaysian geologist who worked for Shell for 29 years. A further indication is that we were sent by mistake an internal Shell email discussing my father. The email was between a Shell Legal Director and the two top Royal Dutch Shell executives, CEO Jeroen van der Veer and Group Managing Director, Malcolm Brinded. Although we have received substantial sums in settlements from Shell from the earlier litigation, it has happened over a period of many years and the net proceeds are long spent. It is now likely that Shell will take action, probably in the US Courts, to obtain the domain names. Once it has done that, Shell might ask for "without prejudice" discussions having put themselves in a stronger position than they are currently in. They might hope that my partly disabled 88 year old father (Alfred) will be unable to defend the case, knowing that he lives on a fixed income. I am his carer and receive a small weekly sum from the UK government for taking care of him. The legal costs to Shell would obviously be considerable, although this probably would be of little significance to Shell management because of the multi-billion profits being generated as a result of record high oil prices. The downside for Shell is that if we can mount a defence the case could presumably take a considerable time to go through the courts, and during that period we would continue to operate a website which would continue to be extremely damaging to Shell's reputation because of the expertise and archive material we have acquired over a long period. Shell might approach us at some point to see if we are prepared to accept what they would consider to be a reasonable sum to purchase the domain names. We have never approached them on the matter and will not do so in the future. If they do make an approach, they would almost certainly insist on the termination of our website and of our anti-Shell campaigning activities. Another possibility is that Shell will simply ignore the fact that my father has ownership of the domain names including the one which must be of major concern: royaldutchshellplc.com. However, this seems unlikely because Shell management knows full well that we will be reminding them, the public, and Shell shareholders/stakeholders of the oil reserves scandal on a daily basis for years to come. Shell has already spent almost a quarter of a billion dollars in fines and settlements arising from the reserves scandal trying desperately to put the debacle behind them. They will not succeed while our website remains in being. Having a low cost platform to exercise free speech has been invaluable. Because of our financial circumstances we would not have posed any threat/problem without it. Many questions arise from the current situation including whether, given my fathers age, it would be wise to become joint owners of the domain names. However we do not want to take any action without receiving advice. Consequently any expert advice or offers of pro-bono legal representation would be very welcome. Yours sincerely John Donovan Email: john@private _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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