JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Because of a similar naming with the Sony global brand and similar visual elements with Sony's official domain, the domain sony-ak.com is being sued by Sony Corporation Japan. The owner of the domain claims that the domain name isn't trying to hitch on the Sony brand because actually it refers to his own name, Sony Arianto Kurniawan, an IT practitioner from Indonesia. The owner refuses to shut down the site despite threats of litigation.
Sony AK has been using his web for IT knowledge sharing. He named the site: Sony AK Knowledge Center.
"My domain, sony-ak.com has been sued by Sony Corporation Japan through their Indonesian legal representative. While actually I registered the domain based on my own name, and I've been using it for a long time just to share information on IT," stated Sony AK at an online forum, Domain100.
His posting on Domain100 on Thursday has received a lot of replies. Some have even made a Facebook campaign to defend Sony AK. Some believe that Sony Corp. has gone too far by such a threat, and they plan to counter claim Sony Corp or even boycott its products.
Sony Corp. has not given an official statement for the charge. Sony Indonesia hasn't been able to comment because the charge was from Sony's Japanese HQ. Sony's Indonesian legal representative hasn't replied to Kompas.com's email either.
Sony AK refuses to shut down site
"For me personally, this is a life achievement and a priceless result of my endeavors in the last 6 to 7 years in building the Sony AK Knowledge Center." Sony AK isn't commercializing his site either, and at the bottom of the site he's put a disclaimer that his site has nothing to do with Sony Corp. Japan, thus he refuses to shut the site down. (Tri Wahono/C17-09)
