The company that eventually bought the address is now in bankruptcy court, and that's causing problems for the unrelated toy business Sadler and his wife started five years ago and named ToySmart.

``There's not the understanding yet that you can add the dot-com to a name and be a totally different company,'' said Renee Conaway, ToySmart's marketing director.

In 1996, when the Sadlers were venturing into online sales for their new ToySmart store, they considered buying the domain name toysmart.com from a man who was using it to peddle surfing and diving equipment.

But they didn't like the price and instead posted their online business at worldsbesttoys.com.

``At the time, I said, `I don't know how important it is that I have the name toysmart.com. Forget that,''' Sadler recalled.

``The next thing I know, I was at the International Toy Fair in February 1998, and I see these hordes of people running around with toysmart.com on their shirts and I say, `What the heck is this? ... This is not the surf dude.'''

The ``surf dude'' had sold his domain name to another toy merchant, based in Waltham, Mass. Its product line of educational toys was nearly identical to Sadler's.

Two years later, toysmart.com is in bankruptcy court and Conaway is been busy assuring customers that ToySmart has no connection with its defunct rival.

``You may have seen the news reports about toysmart.com closing operations,'' Conaway wrote in one e-mail. ``We know many of you have thought we are associated with them. We are happy to say we are not.''

Conaway's aunt even called to ask if she still had a job because she saw a news story about toysmart.com that omitted the dot-com from its name.

That was just the tip of the confusion, though.

The Massachusetts company offered $10 off purchases of $25 or more and frequently gave free shipping. ToySmart has a $5 coupon off $25 purchases and it charges for deliveries.

Some people who bought at toysmart.com showed up at one of ToySmart's two Savannah stores to collect their purchases; some customers at toysmart.com thought they were shopping at the Savannah company, Conaway said.

In addition, toysmart.com has ignited consumer furor by seeking to auction information from its 250,000 customers. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in 38 states sued toysmart.com to keep the company's customer data from being sold.

``It's been a thorn in our side, it really has been,'' Conaway said.

The Sadlers started ToySmart in 1995.

In the meantime, the other company, started as the educational toy retailing division of the Holt Co., was spun off and renamed toysmart.com. In August 1999, the Walt Disney Co. bought a 60 percent stake in it.

After Sadler complained about the use of his company's name, toysmart.com agreed to pay him a monthly fee for using the domain name. In exchange, ToySmart agreed not to use its company name on its own Web site.

Now, with a lawyer monitoring the bankruptcy proceedings for him, Sadler is considering purchasing at least one toysmart.com asset - the domain name.

The company's Web site won't abandon its own address, Conaway considers the toysmart.com one tainted. ``If we end up with it, it would just be used as a splash page,'' which would automatically redirect customers to ToySmart, she said.

SOURCE: Justin Bachman, Associated Press

[Posted 8/07/2000]