France Telecom: 5 million francs for "la vie.com" (Journal du Net)

France Telecom is allowed to keep its slogan "Bienvenue dans la vie.com" (Welcome in life.com). The telephonic operator has set an agreement which allows him to keep on using "la vie.com" in its business signture, le Journal du Net says. In "France Télécom peut exploiter "bienvenue dans la vie.com" à sa guise", the online newspaper notes that the conflict, which has brought together France Télécom and the web agency "la-vie.com" before courts for six months, should now be solved. In first instance, France Télécom which was charged with an abusive use of the name "La-vie.com", had been condemned to abandon the slogan in the beginning of next year and to pay 300.000 francs to the Web Agency. But the group had gone before the Court of Appeal and a new judicial round was set in November.

But the case got worse before summer. La-vie.com had been put in judicial recovery a bit sooner and had been compelled to layoff 25 of its 43 employees. Dominique Amphonesinh, the founder, had then launched a new attack: according to him, this difficult financial situation would have resulted from the withdrawal of an important customer/partner under the pressure of France Télécom. "This customer accounted for a budget of 5 million francs", he declared in June to the Journal du Net. And, the agreement would have been set on this basis of 5 million francs.