CompAmerica In Court Battle Over 'Dell Killers' Campaign

Dell has asked a U.S. District Court judge to grant a temporary restraining order barring the Cranford, N.J., reseller from using the phrase. Privately held, CompAmerica claims to have been using "The Dell Killers" since 1995. A scheduling conference for the case is set for Jan. 26 in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., pending the outcome of judicial deliberations of the temporary restraining order.

Until then, CompAmerica is waging a highly public battle for its right to use the phrase to describe its products. The company filed a trademark application for "The Dell Killers" this past October.

Dell has argued that CompAmerica has defamed Dell and its products and services, and diluted the Dell brand by using the phrase. CompAmerica denies the allegations.

"Dell is trying to claim that the term 'The Dell Killers' steals their brand and that the comparative expression [which suggests] CompAmerica systems are easier to use than Dell systems breaches Dell's copyright," said a CompAmerica spokesman. "This is supposed to be a free-enterprise system. If we can't compare our products to Dell and suggest they are better, then no other manufacturer will be able to do that regarding any competitor."

The spokesman added that the pending suit could have broad ramifications across the industry. "This issue affects every manufacturer in every industry," the spokesperson said. "If we can't do it, HP can't do it, IBM can't do it and Sun can't do it."

He said CompAmerica will comply with whatever the district judge decides, though "we think the balance of the Dell claims are hogwash and should be dismissed."

Dell and its outside legal counsel did not return phone calls from CRN. But Dell has been waging its legal battle against CompAmerica for some time.

On Oct. 19, CompAmerica took down its TheDellkillers.com Web site in response to a request from Dell's attorneys. A month earlier, CompAmerica also voluntarily gave up to Dell the domain names DellPCshops.com and Dellservershop.com, which CompAmercia owned but did not use. Those actions did not stop Dell from filing its lawsuit in November seeking to stop CompAmerica from using "The Dell Killers" description.

CompAmerica claims it has experienced "intimidation" from what it terms "local Dell stealth reseller personnel," who had moved into CompAmerica's office building in the past year and were contacting its customers.

In addition, the national reseller claims that someone has been raiding its Web store and harming its eBay resellers. Those resellers are experiencing what CompAmerica charges are "auction assassinations" in which fake buy orders knock CompAmerica products off of eBay. The company also alleges that someone hacked into "thedellkillers.com" Web site but failed to incapacitate it.