Files suit to stop Paul Dell from using his own name — Dell Websites, as part of his website domain name and company name.

Paul Dell, a website designer living in Minorca, Spain has been sued (AFF/DOS. N° 100019460, ACTE 395925, N/REF.: DELL/DELL) by computer manufacturer Dell Computers for operating a small local business using his own name — Dell Websites.

The lawsuit claims he's engaging in 'parasitism and unfair competition' and asks for hundreds of thousands of Euros in damages, despite the fact that Dell Websites has been operating under the name since April 2001 and the computer company neither designs nor hosts websites. The lawsuit was filed in a Paris court because Paul previously lived in France.

The suit alleges that Paul used the name Dell Websites to take advantage of press releases the company sent out in spring of 2000 announcing that Dell was about to enter the small-business website hosting market. This isn't the first time Paul has heard from the company's lawyers. In 2002, they contacted him, demanding that he turn the domain name dellwebsites.com over to Dell. Paul refused, and Dell appeared to back off. In late 2004, they contacted him again, and in October 2005 they filed the suit.

Prominent members of the web design community have banded together to help Paul battle the behemoth. They've started two blogs, help-paul-dell.com and pauldell.blogspot.com to disseminate information, rally support, and create a way for people to make donations to help Paul fight this expensive lawsuit. As a show of appreciation, Paul is giving each donor a download of one of his CSS-based website templates.