Italian Court Directs Versata To Stop Using The Think3 Trademark

I got wind of another email sent to Think3 customers by the court appointed trustee of Think3 Italy.

Dear Customers,

On July 25 2011 Bologna Court has issued a cross border restraining order against Versata with the following key points:

• Versata FZ-LLC is inhibited from diffusing untruthful and disgracing news about activity of Think3 Trustee;
• Versata FZ-LLC is inhibited from using “Think3” trademark, registered with n.001207893 after request on 16 June 1999, in whatever way, including inserting it in the web domain www.think3.versata.com;
• A euro 5.000,00 fine is applied for each violations of the previous orders and is précised that “think3” name has to be removed by 15 days since the date of communication of this order.

You can see the complete Court official records at this link

Best regards

Dott. Andrea Ferri

This is becoming complicated sooner than I thought. Frankly, I expected Versata to be on the offensive. But it looks like the Italian trustee is going all guns blazing and has taken the fight to Versata. I must say he has succeeded in getting pretty favorable judgements from the Italian court.

The real question is how this Italian restraining order is going to be enforced in the real world. Is Versata going to re-brand Think3 to something else? I don’t think so. Recently Versata made a big noise when it won a patent suit against SAP where a jury directed SAP to pay Versata $345 million. A company that took on the likes of SAP and won doesn’t come across to me as one which will obey this Italian restraining order.