2017
Here are some of the articles published in France in 2017 that mention the fight over the domain name France.com.
04
Feb
2018
Month: February 2018
04
Feb
2018
11/27/15: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris
On November 2015, the Tribunal de Grande Instance rendered its decision regarding the domain name France.com and related European and French trademarks:
04
Feb
2018
09/22/17: Decision of Paris’ Cour d’Appel
Handed on September 22, 2017 was this decision from the Court of Appeals
04
Feb
2018
Awards
The highlights of the French Affairs meetings are the awards Atout France bestows on US tour operators who make France a premier travel destination.
Indeed, as you can see, it is touted by Atout France as being “a prestigious recognition”:
So, we were naturally delighted to receive the French Affair awards.
Starting in 2009
We were elected winner of the “Best Website” category
In 2010, we won for both “Best Tour Operator of the Year” (beating Air France in the popular vote!)
And we won a second award that year for the website with the “Most Diverse and Extensive Offer”
In 2012, we won again for “Most Diverse and Extensive Offer”
03
Feb
2018
Member of the Advisory Board
In 2101, I was invited to join the board of Advisors of Atout France.
Members of the small Advisory Board are “personalities recognized for their contribution to the development of the destination France. They come from the main sectors of the tourist industry: tour operators, travel agents, air carriers, hotels …. They also represent sectors of activity promoting the image of France: specialized journalists, communication agencies ….The objective is that they can bring relevant insights into the market, its evolution and participate in business intelligence”.
I participated gladly in the Board reunions, providing the business intelligence our unique position and history gave me
3 months after Atout France sued France.com, Inc. and declared me personally a “digital pirate”, it thanked me for my knowledge and involvement with the Board!
03
Feb
2018
Consulate General of France in Los Angeles
Once our server was up and running and accessible through the address France.com , we started looking for media companies, government entities, startups and members of the Francophile and Francophone community in the United states to build rich and useful content.
As a French expat living in the US I knew how important information from the Consular services of the French Embassy were. Our first source of daily news was, in fact provided by the Press services of the French Embassy in Washington DC.
In June of 1994, we received the confirmation from the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, that it would work with France Online to provide its readers information ranging from administrative to cultural, even a digital mailbox to allow a dialog between the Consulate General and subscribers of France Online. This marks the first time a French consulate was present online.
and
03
Feb
2018
French Embassy in Washington DC
France Online became the natural outside contractor when, in 1996 the French Embassy in Washington needed to build its first online presence.
We had the knowledge and expertise to bring build and maintain such a site. We were under contract from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a couple of years.
Here is correspondence from the French Embassy dating attesting to the work we were contracted to do:
and an email from the same time:
As well as an invoice paid to France Online by the French embassy in Washington:
03
Feb
2018
Les Webs d’Or
Our early initiatives also bought support from other branches of the French government. Such was the case for Les Webs d’Or.
By December of 1995 the Web was prominently English-speaking. We came up with the idea of developing a web contest to promote French-speaking websites. Anyone could vote for their favorite website, divided in 12 different categories:
The contest took the French-speaking web world by storm, and made, for a few weeks, France.com the most French-speaking website on the Internet.
Both France’s Ministry of Culture as well as the Delegation pour le Francophonie (the government’s arm for the promotion of the French-speaking worlwide) enthusiastically supported the project and participated in it.
03
Feb
2018
French Affairs
The first website promoting travel to France
In 1997, due to the overwhelming request from our web readers, France.com focused on providing information on travel to France.
Our first endeavor in this space was called Francescape, and we did it in cooperation with the French Government Tourist Office. This government agency, then called “Maison de la France”, became Atout France in 2009.
Our 1997 website was rudimentary, for sure, but it was the very first example of online promotion of travel to France.
French Affairs
Since 2002, Atout France has organized yearly events in the United States. The 2-day events, called French Affairs, take place in different American cities and serve to facilitate commerce between French travel suppliers and American travel sellers (such as France.com).
France.com being one of the most established France travel websites, has been invited yearly since 2009, to participate and meet with many French suppliers of travel services. The invitations always included hotel stay, 2 days of conference, meetings, lunches and dinners as well as gala presentations.
The highlight of the reunion were the awards given to the American companies that did most to promote travel to France and sell French travel services.
In the following copies of the official catalogues for each even you can see that France.com is clearly shown and its domain name and website are always promoted.
2009:
2010
2011
2012
2014
02
Feb
2018
Rendez-Vous en France
Atout France’s most important event is the yearly trade show called “Rendez-Vous en France”. These trade shows attract yearly more than 3,000 travel professionals and are held in rotating French cities.
Foreign Tour operators who promote and sell France can be invited to participate by Atout France which covers the cost of Airfare, hotel accommodation during the duration of the trade show and all meals.
In 2009, France.com was invited to participate at the Rendez-Vous en France trade shows. As a member of the US delegation of Tour Operators, France.com was always promoted in the official catalogs given to the travel professional attending the show.
Here, you can see the entry for France.com in the official catalogs,
In 2009:
In 2010
in 2011
in 2012
in 2013
Participation in the Trade show costs $300.00 USD and Atout France gladly received France.com payments, including one just a couple of weeks before it launched a lawsuit against France.com, claiming that we were not authorized to promote France!
In 2015, the US delegation of Tour Operators was invited to meet with Laurent Fabius, France’s minister of Foreign Affairs, who wanted to thank us for the work we were doing in promoting France’s travel offer. This was less than 2 weeks before he launched the lawsuit claimed that France.com has no right to promote France under the name France.com.
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