Business
South African company, TPN, resisting eBay’s bid to shut them down
A rental company in Johannesburg, South Africa, is fighting an attempt by online giant eBay to shut down its RentBay website.
Tenant Profile Network (TPN) received a lawyer’s letter from eBay in May, which claimed that its RentBay website “deceived” eBay’s millions of customers. TPN sells information on tenant behavior to property owners. It also operates the RentBay website, where it lists rental properties without charge.
Large companies often bully smaller ones into changing their names. Earlier this year, a small business in Hout Bay (in Cape Town – South Africa), changed its named from Dolce and Banana when Italy’s Dolce & Gabbana threatened to take it to court.
The lawyers instructed TPN to stop using Rentbay.co.za and the trademark RentBay as it was likely to cause “deception or confusion” and took “unfair advantage” of eBay’s trademarks.
The US website giant began legal proceedings for a trademark infringement after TPN tried to settle the dispute amicably.
