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Introduction

by John
December 8, 2020September 19, 2024

John Donovan, a co-founder of promotional games company Don Marketing: Photo taken in 2015.

By John Donovan

In 1979, the company I co-founded, *Don Marketing, created and supplied promotional games that were used to promote petrol sales on the forecourts of all major petrol brands in the UK, including Shell.

In June 1981, we moved into a direct contractual relationship with Shell as a result of a presentation I made at Shell-Mex House in The Strand, the then London HQ of Shell UK Limited.

I put forward a proposal for Shell to launch a legal version of a promotional game called Make Money that Shell had abandoned in the 1960‘s out of concern that it was in breach of UK lottery laws. read more

shellplc.website and its sister non-profit websites royaldutchshellplc.com, royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellenergy.website, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net and shell2004.com are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia feature.

John Donovan vs Shell

by John
December 7, 2020September 24, 2024

Contact email address for the website owner: [email protected]

Games for Shell

1984 Shell Make Money Game Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

Shell Mastermind Promotional Game Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

Shell Make Merry Harrods Linked Promotional Game Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

Shell Bruce’s Lucky Deal Promotional Game Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

Shell Star Trek Promotion Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

Don Marketing Roll Call of Promotional Games read more

CHAPTER 1: John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare

by John
November 14, 2018September 23, 2024

The name of my Amazon Kindle book – “John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare” is not an ego-driven title dreamt up by me, but the headline of an article by an award-winning newspaper journalist, Christoph Giesen published across the EU in ten languages.

A broadsheet German daily newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung published a major article about me on 20 March 2012 under the headline “Konzernfeind No. 1.”

The article by Christoph Giesen told the story of my epic feud with the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, a former client of the multinational company I co-founded, Don Marketing. read more

CHAPTER 2: An unscrupulous Shell executive

by John
November 14, 2018September 21, 2021

The actions of an ambitious, unethical young Shell executive, intent on ruthlessly exploiting his position at Shell for personal gain, poisoned the previously excellent relationship we had enjoyed with the oil giant. Unfortunately, Shell senior management gave their full backing to the relevant unscrupulous executive: a decision they must regret as it has since cost the Group billions of dollars.

In 1992, in our capacity as directors of Don Marketing, a colleague and I presented in strictest confidence, a series of sales promotion ideas to a new Shell UK National Promotions Manager. read more

CHAPTER 3: Donovan vs Shell litigation

by John
November 13, 2018September 21, 2021

Shell stole confidential intellectual property from us on several occasions. We sued and Shell settled. The settlements were inevitably surrounded by secrecy and deception designed to prevent embarrassing information from reaching third parties, particularly Shell shareholders.

LITIGATION BETWEEN 1994 AND 1996

Shell tried to keep the court settlements in the pre-Smart litigation secret – see pdf of magazine feature – “High Court papers unveil ‘secret’ Shell writ losses.”

CHAPTER 4: Shell hypocrisy

by John
November 13, 2018August 10, 2024

In October 1996, I received an unsolicited letter of apology from Shell Chairman Dr. Chris Fay for the way we were treated by Shell. His letter arrived after Shell had already settled out of court with us for four High Court actions and one County Court case. As can be seen, the tone of the letter not meant for public consumption was totally at odds with press releases issued by Shell before and after his letter. Examples are displayed. It is therefore difficult to avoid the conclusion that the apology letter was disingenuous. read more

CHAPTER 5: Shell corporate espionage in the run-up to the Smart trial

by John
November 1, 2018October 9, 2022

Titled Shell directors, the late Sir Peter Holmes, and Sir William Purves were also directors, major shareholders and the spymasters of Hakluyt & Company, a UK corporate espionage firm founded by former senior MI6 officers. Shell used Hakluyt to engage in cloak and dagger operations against its perceived enemies, including Greenpeace, as exposed in a Sunday Times front-page lead article “MI6 ‘firm’ spied on green groups.” It led to a follow-on inside page headlined “How agent Camus sunk Greenpeace oil protests”. read more

CHAPTER 6: Shell Smart Trial at The Royal Courts of Justice

by John
November 1, 2018September 23, 2024

We suspended our website don-marketing.com before the Smart trial commenced in June 1999.

Screenshot from the Wayback Machine web archive for shell-shareholders.org website: 12 March 2000

The trial actually commenced on 15th June 1999 in Court 58 on the 7th Floor of the modern air-conditioned Thomas More Building at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

HIGH COURT TRIAL JUNE/JULY 1999 Case No: DD04199 Court 58 John Alfred Donovan v. Shell UK Ltd

At the start of the trial the Judge, Mr Justice Laddie QC commented that it was one of the most unpleasant cases that had ever come before him, with both sides making extremely serious allegations against each other. read more

CHAPTER 7: A biased High Court Judge who resigned in controversial circumstances

by John
October 31, 2018August 10, 2024

Regretfully, it became evident that the controversial Judge, the late Mr Justice Laddie (above) appointed to hear the case was not impartial. He strongly objected to our “high-profile campaign” against Shell and failed to disclose his connections with Shell.

Before the trial began Mr Justice Laddie notified my solicitors that he was a participant in the Shell SMART multi retail partner loyalty card scheme. The promotional concept that happened to be the subject of the litigation. I advised that this was not a problem. It was the only Shell connection that he declared. read more

CHAPTER 8: Peace treaty shattered by Shell

by John
October 30, 2018September 21, 2021

The peace did not last for long. Shell offered information about me to a third party company that could only be construed as being damaging to my reputation. I served notice on Shell that this breach by Shell amounted to a repudiation of the agreement. Shell threatened to take related legal action, but tellingly, did not do so. Hostilities resumed with subsequent news coverage, including the above Sunday Times article.

In 2001, a third party company approached Shell to confirm that Shell would not object to the launch on the Internet of a paperless Make Money type game. My involvement as a consultant to the company was disclosed to Shell. read more

CHAPTER 9: Shell did not just steal our ideas

by John
October 30, 2018September 21, 2021

Shell’s retained sales promotion agency, Senior King, complained in writing to Shell senior management about the lack of ethics displayed by Shell’s National Promotions Manager AJL in his dealings with them.

I found evidence of how AJL had also misled the previously mentioned John Armstrong-Homes who put up a promotional idea to Shell. His witness statement is self-explanatory. The same applies to a witness statement from a Mr. Mike McMahon.

Witness Statement of John Armstrong-Holmes

Witness Statement of Mike McMahon read more

CHAPTER 10: Domain name battle with Shell resulting from the reserves scandal

by John
October 30, 2018January 8, 2024

In a spectacular blunder, Shell neglected to register the top-level domain name for the newly merged company Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Shell lawyers discovered, no doubt to their shock and horror, that their most enduring critic had beaten them to the registration of royaldutchshellplc.com. Shell issued proceedings via the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) as reported by the Wall Street Journal (above) but in a spectacular public humiliation, Shell lost the case.

In 2004, a huge scandal engulfed the Royal Dutch Shell Group after it fraudulently overstated its claimed oil and gas reserves – the most important factor in determining the value of an oil company. read more

CHAPTER 11: Shell insider information

by John
October 30, 2018September 21, 2021

We receive insider information about Shell from a variety of sources. From disgruntled Shell employees; from Shell itself in response to Subject Access Requests; from information, Shell has sent to us by accident and from searching and retrieving documents from court files. We have, for example, published a leaked internal email from an incoming Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc on the same day he sent it, resulting in another huge embarrassment for Shell.

As indicated above, we receive insider information about Shell from a number of different sources. read more

CHAPTER 12: Shell corporate espionage in more recent years

by John
October 29, 2018October 5, 2021

Shell cloak and dagger activities against me have continued in more recent years but this time on a global basis, as revealed in a Reuters article (extract above). The most recent spying of which I am aware was directed at me, my website and against Shell’s own employees.

CHAPTER 13: What prompted the more recent sinister activity?

by John
October 29, 2018September 21, 2021

The above logo is for “CAS” – a shadowy Shell Group Corporate Affairs unit populated by spooks led by former high-level MI6 and FBI officers.

James W.D. Hall is Vice President of Corporate Security, located at Royal Dutch Shell plc’s Global Headquarters in the Netherlands. Hall, a mysterious British Citizen, was described in a June 2017 U.S. court document as “the top executive in Shell’s entire Corporate Security Organization…” He is identified by name in a related article “Spectacular falling out of ‘Security Professionals’ at the top of Shell.” read more

CHAPTER 14: Shell Intellectual Property Theft

by John
October 29, 2018September 21, 2021

Because of my horrendous experience with Shell, I have regularly warned third parties to take all possible precautions when approaching Royal Dutch Shell with confidential commercially valuable information e.g. new ideas.

We have published a number of related articles:

Shell in the US courts again for alleged theft of trade secrets: 20 June 2014

Shell GameChanger – Scam, or Genuine Game Changer?: 10 June 2014

Is it safe to disclose ideas to Shell GameChanger?: 7 June 2014

Shell Oil Must Pay $153.6 Mln Award to Union Carbide: 17 June 2012 read more

CHAPTER 15: Assisting third parties to challenge Shell

by John
October 28, 2018August 10, 2024

It is a fact that our website has been used to publish public appeals on behalf of a number of parties, including the WWF and Friends of the Earth, who wanted to reach Shell shareholders, Shell employees, or the public. Information about the various public appeals can be found on a Wikipedia archive article from which the above extract is taken.

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

CHAPTER 16: Our activities caught the attention of the news media

by John
October 27, 2018November 8, 2021

The Sunday Telegraph published an article by Juliette Garside under the headline “Online revolutionaries“ containing a reference to the Donovans and their website.

The long-lasting hostility between Shell and the Donovan family has not escaped the attention of the news media and other interested parties, such as The One World Trust, an independent research organisation associated with the UK Houses of Parliament and the United Nations.

Some memorable articles have been published regarding our activities and our website. read more

CHAPTER 17: News story in February 2015: Shell ship named after a Nazi SS Officer

by John
September 21, 2018September 17, 2024

This chapter is about a victory I scored over Shell in 2015. The above screenshot is from an article published in the Financial Times on 5 February 2015.

Extract from the article:

“Royal Dutch Shell is facing a storm of criticism after deciding to proceed with plans to bring a ship named after a Nazi war criminal into UK waters to decommission the Brent oilfield…”

In January 2015, The Observer newspaper published a major article by its chief correspondent Ed Vulliamy under the headline:

“Jewish outrage as world’s largest ship, named after SS war criminal, arrives in Europe”. read more

CHAPTER 18: Shell involvement in Al-Yamamah corruption scandal

by John
September 17, 2018September 24, 2024

In September 2009, we published an article headlined: BAE Systems whistleblower accuses Shell & BP of money laundering Al-Yamamah proceeds

Al-Yamamah was the Saudi/UK corruption scandal investigated by the UK Serious Fraud Office until the investigation was stopped in its tracks by the then PM, Tony Blair, a man not known for being incorruptible or honest.

Blair gave in to threats from the repressive Saudi regime. In my lifetime, this was a low point in the UK’s international reputation, along with the Suez fiasco.
read more