TL;DR (lawyers hired by) Odido is threatening to sue me over a joke.

Introduction and background

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At the beginning of 2024, I launched a new website: heeftodidoalipv6.nl (translated: ‘does odido have ipv6 already?’).

The website would display a big fat ‘Nee, Helaas! (No, unfortunatley!)’ together with links to competitor ISPs in the Netherlands for every word in their slogan ‘Het kan ook zo’.

This website was meant as a joke and a message to Odido. It’s time to deploy IPv6. And Odido is not only very, very late; they also haven’t communicated about their roadmap in the slightest. Everyone benefits when the world switches to IPv6, so why is it so hard? Everyone has had enough time.

On March 1st, I received a letter from a legal office out of Amsterdam. They stated that, with my joke website, I was infringing on the trademark rights of Odido, confusing visitors and causing damages to Odido, damages they would hold me liable for.

Let’s dive deeper:

The website

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Just so we’re clear on what we’re talking about, this is what the website looked like (with a watermark, because, you know.. wouldn’t want to ‘confuse’ anyone).

“Unfortunatley, no” “But you do! 👍” “Het kan ook zo. Odido. Het kan ook zo”

The sentence ‘Het kan ook zo’ (litterly translated: ‘It can also be done this way’), linked to a website of other Dutch ISPs that do have IPv6 implemented already. Every word in the sentence linked to a different ISP:

Het, linked to: https://www.kpn.com/service/internet/ipv6 kan, linked to: https://www.delta.nl/klantenservice/internet-en-wifi/ipv6/ ook, linked to: https://www.ziggo.nl/klantenservice/internet-wifi/ipv6-bij-ziggo zo, linked to: https://freedom.nl/nieuwsartikel/freedom-krijgt-hoogste-score-voor-ipv6-gebruik-in-nederland

Then, the sentence was displayed again. This time, for every letter in the sentence a Dutch ISP with IPv6 implemented. I’ll spare you that here.

The goal of the website

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The goal of the website was two-fold:

• It was a message to Odido: ‘het kan ook zo’, looking at the other internet providers
• It was an easy way to check if Odido had implemented IPv6 yet or has started the rollout, or issued a plan to do so (none of which they have done publicly).

This was clear by the question in the URL (heeftodidoalipv6.nl - does odido have ipv6 already?) and the answer in big, bold letters. The layers disagree, however. They think I infringe on Odido’s trademark.

Why it looked the way it did

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Granted, I did get some inspiration from Odido’s website. But so did Odido from Sanquin.

Initially, the website was just plain text. While discussing the website with a friend, we decided the website could use a fresh coat of paint. I got to work doing some CSS and HTML and it didn’t take long before we had the website we had.

The letter

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The website sat on the internet for about 2 months, nothing on the hand. Then, out of nowhere on March 1st. I received an e-mail from [LEGAL], a legal office from Amsterdam. They represent Odido and, as explained in the beginning of my post, threatend to sue because I was ‘infringing on trademark rights’, ‘causing damages’ to Odido and ‘confusing visitors’. These are all allegations.

Maybe something can be said of the way the website looked, then you can ask to change the style of the site a bit. This legal office, however, took it further. A lot further…

They demanded that I (paraphrased);

• took down the website immediatly after receiving the letter;
• cancel the domain ‘heeftodidoalipv6.nl’;
• never do it again, or pay 5.000 EUR per day of any alleged infringement’
• pay them 750 excluding 21% VAT for the ‘reasonable’ legal fees.

Although I disagreed with some of the points they stated, I took down the website and cancelled the domain (which will become available on the free market soon. for more information about the process of cancelling a .nl, check SIDN.nl). I did this within 30 minutes after receiving the e-mail and provided them with proof that I did what they asked.

What I did not do, is pay the ‘resonable’ legal fees. This is the first time anyone (representing) Odido has expressed dissatisfaction with the website. If this was the second or third attempt at contacting me I could understand the letter a bit better.

I think it is not reasonable to ask 750 euro (excluding 21% VAT, mind you!) at first contact. But maybe that’s just me. This matter could have been avoided by just simply asking. I’m not the hardest to get in contact with.

ℹ️ (depending on how the case develops, I will or will not fill the redacted parts of this post)

What I could have done better

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I am not for passing 100% of the blame on someone else. I believe everyone acts the way they do for a reason. So, it was time to reflect; could I have done something different to prevent this situation?

In short, the answer is yes. Mainly because:

• I could have made it clear that this was not a message from Odido by explicitly stating it on the website
• I could have provided visitors of the website with more context (what is IPv6, why is it important)
• I could have made it clear I (a private individual) was comparing Odido to competitors.
• I could have changed the registered owner of the domain. By default, domains are registered list my sole-propietorship as the holder and owner of the domain, while in this case I was doing this out of my own name as an individual.

Does this warrent the reaction that I got? I don’t think so. A friendly conversation would have gone a lot farther, I reckon.

Why should internet service providers implement IPv6, again?

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• Larger Address Space: IPv6 provides a significantly larger address space compared to IPv4, allowing for more devices and networks to connect to the internet. IPv4 exhaustion has been a problem for over 10 years. now. IPv6 addresses are only useful if both the end-user (Odido’s customers) and the server have implemented IPv6

• Simplified Network Configuration: IPv6 simplifies network configuration and reduces the need for NAT (Network Address Translation), enabling more efficient communication between devices. Reducing complexitiy means fewer problems. Fewer problems means happier people.

• Increased Innovation: IPv6 enables the development of new services and applications, fostering innovation and growth in the digital economy and eliminating the need for expensive legacy IPv4 addresses. If companies don’t have to invest in a market that should not have existed in the first place (the IPv4 address market), they can spend the money on their actual product or service they are developing.

Why do you care so much about IPv6 anyway?

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Why go through so much trouble, you might ask yourself? And frankly, I don’t really have an answer to that. It might be because I know on first hand how high IPv4 costs are because I run a hobby AS. And maybe it’s because I’d like to see more hobby AS’s. Maybe it’s because Odido have never, ever communicated clearly about the issue. The answers are always somewhere along the lines of

We zijn ervan op de hoogte dat hier veel vraag naar is. Op dit moment kan ik daar verder nog niks over zeggen. Het enige wat ik kan zeggen is dat we hier intern van afweten en dit meegenomen wordt. Als het zover is en we hebben een besluit genomen, zullen we uiteraard iedereen hiervan op de hoogte brengen!

translated and paraphrased: we know there is demand. But at this time I cannot say anything about [if or when IPv6 support will come]. Only thing I can say is we know about it internally and if there is a decision we will let everyone know!

I’m sorry, “If”?. IPv6 is no longer optional. This really grinds my gears. Yes, starting about IPv6 can really trigger me. I cannot help it.

It’s absurd that the world is taking this long to adapt IPv6, while it solves so many problems. And I’m afraid we still have a long way to go.

Odido however, is one of the last (if not the last, if you only count the big ones) ISPs to implement IPv6. And they have not communicated about their roadmap in the slightest. This really disappoints me and (as I explained earlier) the website was a way to get some attention from Odido about this issue.

Attention I did get, but not the way I intended.

It sometimes feels like Odido would rather spend money on marketing and legal fees than to invest in their network and communicate with (potential new) customers. Which is dissapointing.

So, what now?

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As you might have guessed, I am not paying their ‘reasonable’ legal fees. I think it is unreasonable the way they have handled the situation and the things they demanded. They (the legal company) have given me a deadline to pay up and I plan to let that deadline pass.

If Odido really wants to sue me personnaly over legal costs they ask after a first e-mail, then they can. But I’ll make sure the world hears about it.

Odido’s response

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Late november I sent an e-mail to Odido’s press department to ask for a response to all this. They replied a few weeks later saying that they have taken notice of my plans to publish a blogposts (which doesn’t say anything) and that IPv6 is already available for business customers and will be offering it to consumers as well, but there is no timeline they could give me.

Here is the entire e-mail (in Dutch):

Beste Nick,

Bedankt voor uw bericht en de bijlagen. We bevestigen dat wij kennis hebben genomen van uw plannen om een blogpost te publiceren over uw ervaring en de communicatie met [LEGAL]. We waarderen uw betrokkenheid en begrijpen dat dit onderwerp voor u belangrijk is. Op dit moment is IPv6 voor de zakelijke markt beschikbaar en op termijn willen we dit ook aan consumenten gaan aanbieden. Over de timing hiervan kunnen we op dit moment geen uitspraken doen.

Met vriendelijke groet,

[REDACTED] Senior External Communications Manager & Woordvoerder

This does not clear up wether [LEGAL] were handeling on their own or in regards to a direct response to a complaint from Odido. I guess we’ll never know.