A domain name dispute between New Zealand’s Yellow Pages who isn’t happy with Yellow Book. Yellow Pages NZ is suing an Australian student to stop Yellow Book trading under its present name in New Zealand. The case also involves stopping Yellow Book from using the domain name yellowbook.co.nz and the right to trademark the colour yellow in New Zealand. Yellow Pages also claims Yellow Book would cause confusion for the public due to their likeness.The student successfully fought off a case from Telstra, the dominant Australian telco, involving yellowpages.com.au. This case revolved around similar issues. The “Australian court found that while the telecommunications company had a trademark over the term ‘Yellow Pages’, this did not extend to the term ‘yellow’ itself.”However the “New Zealand action has been based on trademark issues around use of both the term and colour yellow, as well as allegations that Yellow Book has copied data from the directories business.” Both claims are strongly denied.For more information, see the article published in The Age, Sydney Morning Herald or Stuff.
Yellow legal fight erupts in NZ
A domain name dispute between New Zealand’s Yellow Pages who isn’t happy with Yellow Book. Yellow Pages NZ is suing an Australian student to stop Yellow Book trading under its present name in New Zealand. The case also involves stopping Yellow Book from using the domain name yellowbook.co.nz and the right to trademark the colour yellow in New Zealand. Yellow Pages also claims Yellow Book would cause confusion for the public due to their likeness.