From: "Luc Van den Troost" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Legal actions from Swiss bank against personal homepage from gay Belgian. Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 08:14:59 +0200 Hi, I would like to draw your attention at next situation: A Belgian gay person uses for 9 years the nickname ZKittyBoi or ZKBoi on the internet (irc and webpages). On his webpages there is some personal stuff and some artwork. Some years ago a Swiss bank, Zuricher KantonalBank, registers ZKB as trademark for banking services in the Benelux. This year this person is sued by the bank for abusing their registered trademark and he is convicted by court. Conviction has not been officially notified to him yet. Searching Yahoo for websites containing +zkb learned that there are over 7000 pages containing these letters, including pages from German police (Zentrale Kriminalit�tBekampfung) and an Austrian booking office (Zentral Karten Buro). As this seems the only case in wich the bank is taking legal actions one might suspect this has to do with the - gay - content of the website. I posted a mail to the bank for having more information, but got no reply so far. More information, including the court text, can be found on the disputed website itself: http://www.zkboi.com/bhome/pers/zkb/en/index.html Sincerely yours, Luc Van den Troost Hertenstraat 31 B-2300 Turnhout Belgium ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Geachte Herren, Frauen, Entschuldiging weil mein Deutsch ganz schlecht ist. Desweilen sende ich dieses in Englisch. I heard of a court case in Belgium, where, on behalf of your bank, someone is sued for using the ZKB letter combination in his internet-nickname as ZKBoi or ZKittyBoi, and uses these names allso on his internet site. It is unbelievable, but it seems true. The names ZKBoi or ZKittyBoi even aren't used as a brand-name, just as everyone on the internet uses one. Mine is Speedy-X. Don't think the 'Speedy' car-exhaust company will complaint to this. If they would chances of them having success are rather small. However when before court a Big Bank is sueing a 'small boi' then anything can happen. You just have more means to get what you want, that's reality. If you don't get what you want before a court you can go higher, and money doesn't matter. That isn't the case at the other side. Perhaps for you this is only a first step, in sueing others. What about ZKB from NRW-polizei (Zentrale Kriminalit�tsBek�mpfung) http://www.polizei.nrw.de/kleve/sn/zkb.htm This is only one example close by you. If you search Yahoo for pages with zkb on you will find over 7000 more cases to sue. Starting this way would be silly, so i wonder why you picked out this case? Is this perhaps a case of homophobia? I strongly would like an explanation about the how and why these things are happening. Acts like these are spread very fast on the internet comunity, and i doubt it serves the immage-building of your company. Sincerely yours, Luc Van den Troost Hertenstraat 31 B-2300 Turnhout Belgi�n tel. +32 14 437218 fax. +32 14 426206 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Thanks but no thanks. My organization will have nothing to do with such an unrepresentaive, undemocratic, uninclusive gathering. - Mike Roberts Aug 28/98 [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
