It demanded that the Thai portal's name, printed in a logo broadly similar to the typeface used by the giant US company, be changed. Yoohhoo.com Webmaster Chatchai Thumprasreat, who was warned off by Yahoo's lawyers, defended his site and said it clearly offered a different service to the giant search engine. "I told the lawyer that I had no intention of duplicating Yahoo's name. Actually we have different names, it is pronounced differently and has different fonts," he told the newspaper.

Chatchai said Yahoo's lawyer told him the clamp down came as the company prepared to launch aThai version - it already has sites covering Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and China. Chatchai has sought support on Internet bulletin boards in his David and Goliath battle. "I don't know about you but I don't like to see foreign companies bullying Thai companies like this," said one notice, urging Thais to stay away from the planned Yahoo version.