Internode legal dispute causes IMTV to suspend its ADSL business

Whilst seeking a resolution to its current legal dispute with Internode over the color orange and Extreme brand on its website, IMTV, the ISP based in Sydney has advised that it has ‘temporarily’ shut down its ADSL service. Michael Jaafar, the chief executive of the ISP advised that ‘until further notice’ it would be transferring its ADSL customer base to EFTel but stressed that the ISP was not closed permanently.

Jaafar said “We’ve decided to cool things off to see what happens. We’ve made an arrangement with EFTel to keep all our customers online at our own expense. We’ve had to provide some customers with wireless Internet access to keep them going until all the issues are resolved, and we’ve also refunded all our customers that paid us in advance.”

In an earlier statement to a popular broadband forum Jaafar said that ‘due to legal action’ the broadband arm of IMTV had been forced to cease trading.

A letter was sent to IMTV regarding alleged infringement of the orange color scheme and the ‘Extreme’ brand on its website by Internode back in December according to sources. The ‘Extreme’ was the brand for Internode’s range of ADSL2+ services and has been trademarked by the telco.

Confirmation was made by a spokesperson for Internode advising that it ‘has no current legal proceedings against the ISP,’ although it has warned IMTV regarding the alleged trademark infringements.

The spokesperson said “Internode did write a letter asking IMTV to stop using the word ‘Extreme’, which is a trademark registered to Internode. Last month, IMTV agreed to remove the word ‘Extreme’ from its website.”

The color Orange appear to now be at the centre of the continuing dispute between IMTV and Internode although it is not clear as to whether damages are being sought by Internode. With regards to costs and ongoing provision of service IMTV have notified its ADSL customer to contact EFTel.

Jaafar said “EFTel will possibly either churn customers away [from IMTV permanently] or if we reach an agreement with Internode we will seek to manage them again.”