Royaldutchshellplc.com

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Royaldutchshellplc.com is a gripe site operated by Alfred Donovan and his son John Donovan, which is critical of Royal Dutch Shell. Due to an oversight, the management of the Royal Dutch Shell Group had not registered the dotcom name for the new company which resulted from the unification in 2005, of The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company Plc and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company Limited. The domain name had already been registered by Alfred Donovan, who exploited a loophole which allows an online critic to legally use a dotcom domain name identical to a target company's name or trademark. To fall within this category, the gripe site must be non-commercial, with no subscriptions and no paid advertising. To avoid being considered a cybersquatter the domain name and associated website must be active, with no attempt made to sell the domain name, especially to the company holding rights to the corresponding trademark or company name. Shell unsuccessfully attempted to obtain via WIPO proceedings, ownership of this address and two other Donovan owned domain names: royaldutchshellgroup.com and shellnews.net.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

1 Background to legal battles with Shell
2 Appeals to Shell shareholders, Shell employees, and the public
3 Connection with Shell Sakhalin II project
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Background to legal battles with Shell

The Donovan’s owned a chain of petrol stations in East London and Essex and created many sales promotion campaigns. In 1981, the Donovan’s devised a promotional game scheme for Royal Dutch Shell called “Make Money”. Because the promotion was successful, many other Shell promotional campaigns followed, including a £4.5 million Mastermind TV Series themed game; a scratch card game offering £2.5 million in Harrods food prizes; a playing card themed promotion endorsed by UK TV celebrity Bruce Forsyth and in 1991, a £4.5 million “Every Card Can Win” scratch card game with a Star Trek theme.

The business relationship which operated on an international basis, floundered after Shell appointed a new National Promotions manager in 1992 to whom the Donovan’s promotional ideas were disclosed on a confidential basis. In 1994, the Donovan’s issued a Writ against Shell in respect of a follow-up “Make Money” promotion claiming breach of confidence and breach of contract. They also threatened to sue each of Shell’s 2,000 UK petrol stations. The Donovan’s accepted a £60,000 settlement but continued to pursue legal claims over a Shell Nintendo scratch off game and a film themed collector game called “Now Showing”. Shell settled both claims in October 1996. During the course of the litigation, the Donovan’s founded the “Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group” and what may have been the worlds first "gripe" websites. Shell referred to the Donovan's internet activity in a [1] press statement issued on 17 March 1995. An article published on 11 June 1998 by The Daily Telegraph under the headline of "Donovan's beef with Shell on-line" reported that "Donovan is publicising his gripes on two elaborate and colourful internet websites, don-marketing.com and shell-shareholders.org".

In June 1999, a High Court trial commenced in respect of a claim by John Donovan against Shell relating to a loyalty programme utilising smart card technology for a multi-retailer scheme by Shell. The legal costs were estimated to be over a million pounds. According to a report in The Sunday Telegraph Shell Legal Director, Richard Wiseman, denied allegations made by Donovan against Shell and said that he was “misguided” and had been wrongly encouraged by Shell’s previous payments. Donovan alleged that Shell had used an undercover agent, Christopher Phillips, in the run up to the trial. According to The Sunday Telegraph report Shell’s lawyers admitted that they hired Mr Phillips, but only to carry out “routine credit inquiries”.^[5] According to an article published in February 2007 by Prospect magazine, "Shell agreed to settle out of court, paying the Donovans a sum "in the thousands" as part of a "peace treaty" stipulating that neither party speak about the matter in future". The acticle quotes Donovan as alleging that Shell subsequently broke the "peace treaty".^[6]

Alfred Donovan and John Donovan are both retired from commercial activities. Their former company, Don Marketing, ceased trading several years ago. Their websites are all non-commercial; do not seek or accept donations, offer all services without charge, and carry no advertising.

[edit] Appeals to Shell shareholders, Shell employees, and the public

Royaldutchshellplc.com has been used to publish appeals on behalf of a number of parties who wanted to reach Shell shareholders and/or Shell employees, or the public e.g.

An appeal by the World Wildlife Fund(WWF) in relation to environmental concerns about Shell's Sakhalin II project. Part of the WWF appeal published on the Donovan website on 2 February 2006, stated: "If you have a story you would like to tell, then please get in touch with us or Alfred Donovan in confidence, or make your views known to EBRD. This is a crucial time for influencing this project, when it is essential the real story of Sakhalin comes out." A further appeal on behalf of the WWF was published on the Donovan website in March 2006.^[7]^[8]
An appeal by The World Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility. The statement by the ECCR published on the Donovan website on 25 January 2006 included the following explanation and appeal: "The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility intends to bring a shareholder resolution to Royal Dutch Shell plc’s 2006 AGM. ECCR believes that Shell’s impacts on `frontline’ communities and the environment in County Mayo, Ireland, the Niger Delta, and at Sakhalin II in Russia merit urgent attention. The resolution calls for a major improvement in Shell’s performance in terms of community and stakeholder consultation, risk analysis, and social and environmental impact analysis. ECCR needs 100 Shell shareholders to co-sign the resolution before the end of February."^[9]^[10]
On 25 January 2006 an appeal by Zack Brown, an Arctic Wilderness Associate of the Public Interest Research Group. Brown stated: "Our campaign continues to push Chevron and ExxonMobil on the Arctic, but in 2006 most of our attention will focus on Royal Dutch Shell." He went on to make the following appeal: "As a part of our effort, we are building a large pool of individual Royal Dutch Shell common stock investors. If you, or anyone you know owns Royal Dutch Shell common stock (RDS-A or RDS-B) please contact Zack Brown at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund..."^[11]^[12]
An appeal by U.S. lawyers, Bernstein Liebhard & Lifshitz in September 2004 for evidence in respect of a major class action law suit brought against Shell in relation to an oil and gas reserves recategorisation.^[13]^[14] In September 2004, Bernstein Liebhard & Lifshitz confirmed that they had received calls as a result of the appeal.^[15] In March 2006 the litigation was given permission to proceed as a global class action against Royal Dutch Shell.^[16]^[17] A Shell shareholder to represent all non holders of Royal Dutch Shell stock was found following an appeal published on the Donovan website on 20 January 2006.^[18]
An appeal for support by Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands was posted on the royaldutchshell.com website from 20 December 2006 for a campaign entitled shelladvert.org.^[19]

Royaldutchshellplc.com is also used to publish information by The National Union of Ogoni Students (NUOS) "an independent, non-profit entity that functions as the students unit of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)." A letter from NUOS to President Olusegun Obasanjo of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was published on 17 December 2006. It demanded that the license granted Shell Oil to operate in Ogoni should be revoked. The following is an extract from the letter "the worlds' most impoverished people inhabiting one of the world's wealthiest span of land. This irony ridiculously fed by succeeding governments of Nigeria and Shell Oil Company is unacceptable."^[20] Shell has unsuccessfully attempted to promote a reconciliation process with the Ogoni which would allow Shell to recommence oil production in Ogoniland.^[21]

[edit] Connection with Shell Sakhalin II project

Moves by the Russian government in relation to environmental issues concerning the Royal Dutch Shell led Sakhalin-II project in eastern Russia has created an international furore, with representations made to President Putin by Prime Minister Tony Blair and many other heads of government. On 18 October 2006, the Donovan's published an article confirming they had for some time been supplying information to the Russian government relating to Sakhalin II. Information in the form of Shell internal emails and Shell insider comments, posted on Royaldutchshellplc.com, were passed by the Donovan's to Oleg Mitvol, the Deputy Head of Rosprirodnadzor, the Russian Environmental Agency. In November 2006, Oleg Mitvol confirmed in an interview published in This Week in Argus FSU Energy that the evidence on which a prosecution against Sakhalin Energy claiming $10 billion in damages is being mounted, was supplied by John Donovan of royaldutchshellplc.com. Mr Mitvol is quoted as saying: "Who will take Sakhalin Energy to court? I will take them. I have documents proving that the Sakhalin Energy management was aware that the company violated technical standards, but carried on trying to meet project deadlines and refused to stop work. I am confident of winning my case in Stockholm. What documents are these? Where are they from? I have email correspondence between executives in Sakhalin Energy management from 2002. I received these letters from John Donovan, owner of the anti-Shell website www.royaldutchshellplc.com."^[6]