GoDaddy sued for sending out renewal reminders - who's next?

[Bill Roy]

GoDaddy is being sued for sending out automatic domain renewal notices.

A company called WhitServe holds patents that it alleges GoDaddy is infringing by sending out automated renewal notices.

Read the story here at TheRegister.co.uk

This could actually have an effect on domain renewals and/or renewal pricing.

[Tim Schoon]

They should be sued for these annoying icann info update requests instead!

Well a decision hasn't been made yet, IMO a sad yell for publicity by WhitServe..

[RobM]

The people who grant these ridiculous patents should be shot and forced to pay damages to the person who patented bullets.

[Tim Schoon]

What about the guy that patents patents.. does he get to sue all patent holders?

[Tia Wood]

There a patent on annoying automated emails?

[dcristo]

Haven't read the article... just to be clear what is the issue here? Sending out an email reminder to renew your recently expiring domain, or the way GD automatically renews the domain for you if you decided to do that when registering the name?

[tiki]

the real crime is not being given an option to turn those off, essentially you opted-in for them when you decided to use them as a registrar, but you should be able to disable that spam

[dcristo]

the real crime is not being given an option to turn those off, essentially you opted-in for them when you decided to use them as a registrar, but you should be able to disable that spam

and then have a cry about it when you forget to renew a domain? i would hardly call it spam if your a client. what is spam is the idiot registrars sending snail mail who feel they have the right to send you a renewal notice to change registrars at some absurd markup and they think they are doing you some favor.

[cerno]

I read the article, haven't looked at the actual patent

calling GoDaddy a "professional services provider" seems a stretch, it would seem the patent was referring to attorneys, doctors and others offering what is typically referred to as professional services

there would not seem to be much difference between reminders from godaddy and every license or permit you pay periodically, don't pay and you lose the license or registration, is automobile registration a professional service?

[cbk]

I guess maybe I skimmed the article but somebody can have a patent on sending renewal emails for your products? I have had thousands of domain names at GoDaddy and never was annoyed at recieving those emails, in fact they help let me know what stage they are in and manage my account better.

[bmugford]

This suit is a load of BS. It will get dismissed at some point I am sure.

People can file all the patents and TMs they want. Whether they are enforceable or not is a different story.

Brad

[RobM]

This suit is a load of BS. It will get dismissed at some point I am sure.

People can file all the patents and TMs they want. Whether they are enforceable or not is a different story.

Brad

WhitServe previously sued Computer Packages Inc, a trademark management services company, along with customers including Intel and EMC. Last year, it won a reported $8.4m judgment.

Madness