[hfos]

"Smurfs Suck

"License holder Studio Peyo no longer allows the word 'Smurf' in your domain name. Among others they told the owner of the websmurfer to remove the 'smurf' from his domain name."

http://retecool.com/comments.php?id=11778_0_1_0_C

Linked from the article:

"Smurfs may appear peaceful, when it comes to domain names, they can get quite nasty.

"That's what Robin Bandy found out. He's the owner of a nine year old site where people can translate their text to 'smurf'. Bandy received an e-mail from Studio Peyo, the company which owns the rights to the smurf-franchise..."

http://www.telegraaf.nl/i-mail/28266971/Smurfen_bijten_van_zich_af.html

Anyone else heard about this?

[Guest]

Thanks for sharing that, Robin.

[Rachel]

Hi Robin, yes IMPS decided to get tough a few years ago and many of us had to change our domain names. Blue Imps used to be smurfvalley.com and even though we argued that we weren't profit orientated sites and that we were only really helping to keep smurfs popular IMPS still made us change names.

What was even worse, because smurfvalley.com was a popular site when we got rid of the name it was taken over by a *censored* site which was awful as this really did more damage to the smurf name. We insisted IMPS bought the name which they did and in fact still use as a redirect.

Every so often I think they have a go at site owners with all sorts of legal stuff. Such a shame.

[Syd Smurf]

I think to some degree that IMPS is being too tough on certain websites with their no tolerance policy to using the name smurf......mainly when it comes to non profit orientated sites. A while back I wanted to do a smurf site and call it Smurf Degrees of Variation....but that was nipped in the butt when I heard about previous cases with IMPS getting nasty.

What was even worse, because smurfvalley.com was a popular site when we got rid of the name it was taken over by a *censored* site which was awful as this really did more damage to the smurf name.

That's awful Rach, I bet you were spittin chips when that happened and I wouldn't blame you either.

I didn't know about your previous name before Blue Imps though....I like Blue Imps better though....plus it's kind of cheeky too

[Rachel]

Hi Dyar, yes it wasn't pleasant to say the least and it meant a lot of work to sort all the smurf sites out but I am pleased to say everyone just got on with it and didn't give up.

Here is the article I wrote on Blue Imps about it: http://www.blueimps.com/smurfynews.html

I didn't know about your previous name before Blue Imps though....I like Blue Imps better though....plus it's kind of cheeky too

Well, as you say we were all very annoyed about it but I have to give credit for the name to hubby.

IMPS weren't too happy about it and tried to stop us using it but as I explained, imps in the English language roughly means "little people" which they didn't know so in the end we got it sorted.

When it all first happened it was a real mess as there were rumours flying around for months before all the legal letters started arriving.

[Syd Smurf]

Hi Rach

Thanks for posting that as I hadn't read that part of your forum before....I get side tracked by all of the smurf pics

I think it's a real fine line between IMPS protecting their rights and being a a bit over the top on some sites. I guess it's their rights to do that and ensure they set the standard so you can't really argue against their policies but they just don't seem like a very fun company when it comes to dealing with smurf collectors at times.

I think I need to do another tour of Blue Imps and see what else is there.

[DrunkSmurf]

I think IMPS has a secret deathwish to go out of business. Just about everything in the promotion of Smurf products, whether by Schleich or otherwise, currently seems inefficient.

I'm surprised IMPS hasn't tried to shut down this site yet. Or sue ebay. Actually, if IMPS could get Schleich off its sluggish butt, we might not even need ebay.

Let me get this straight: the Golden 50 ain't ever going to change (except for the eight new smurfs in, and eight old ones out?) What about shaking up the remaining 42 so that we who already have them have an incentive to buy more smurfs from Schleich? Never mind! Too much trouble!

[Tojo]

Let me get this straight: the Golden 50 ain't ever going to change (except for the eight new smurfs in, and eight old ones out?) What about shaking up the remaining 42 so that we who already have them have an incentive to buy more smurfs from Schleich?

I quite agree with you here. Once you've got the current range (which I finally achieved when I managed to buy the 3 small houses recently) the only thing to look forward to is the new release each year. I could always prolong the suspense by buying a new figure each month but that would still leave 4 months without anything new

[Syd Smurf]

Good idea to give the Golden 50 a real shake up....how about a new Smurfette Baseball Batter, Pitcher & Catcher with different colours for 2006 for some variation

[Guest]

IMPS are no different to any other company though. Lego are the same, you can't put Lego in a domain name, and I know someone who recently got a nasty letter from Epson because they were using that in their domain name to sell printer ink.

When smurfs get really popular again (as in pop culture), what if every Tom, Dick & Harry creates a smurf site on a whim, and doesn't put a lot of effort into it? There could be a shed load of awful sites using smurf in their domain name, at least this way it makes people think twice about it. And the people with genuine smurf websites work hard to make their website as good as they can so they get found by other smurf collectors.

I think it was very hard on people like Rachel, Pete and Dirki who already had their websites, but for new websites I think it is fair and a pretty normal thing for businesses to do.

[Fram]

I believe they may even need to do it to protect their trademark. That doesn't mean that it is a nice thing to do though. But it has given us some pretty imaginative website names, with Blue Imps the best pun of course. I have been thinking about what name I could give my website if I ever get around to making one, but I haven't decided yet.

[Guest]

IMPSRUS

ChrisMurfitt

Oh the possibilities are endless, and I am rubbish at this, bring on Rachel's hubby the domain name genius (he also chose Bluecavern).

[Guest]

I've just been reading the info on that websmurfer website, he's even posted IMPS' emails on there. He's really looking for a fight!

http://websmurfer.devnull.net/