Going to get sued: Worth challenging?
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He has trademarks registered in the US. So he could if he wanted to, fly over here, or a representative of his to file suit in the US. The problem is I doubt he could win as much as it would cost him to sue, if he could even win that is.
I think it would be hard for him to sue you from the uk, if your in the us.
Also i think uk and us trademarks are different. So maybe he just has the uk
Also i think uk and us trademarks are different. So maybe he just has the uk
Alright, he's not backing down, although he's being very polite about it. I have six weeks to change the name of the domain, else I get served papers.
I'm going to try to schedule a visit with a lawyer this week to see if he has a case. If he does, I guess I'll just have to rename it.
I'm going to try to schedule a visit with a lawyer this week to see if he has a case. If he does, I guess I'll just have to rename it.
Just throwing this out there.
Sometimes you need to put yourself in the other persons shoes.
Imagine if you invested an amazing amount of money on your brand and TM'd your name/logo.
Chances are you're going to challenge.
2 examples come to mind from the music industry (of course there's tons more).
In the 70's-80's an Australian band called "The Angels", had to change their name in the USA to Angel City - because of the american band "Angels". Even though they played different styles of music, and the band had the word "The" before Angels -- still had to change it.
The band Bush from the UK, had to change their name to "Bush X" in Canada for the same reason. Again 2 different styles of music. Actually if you read up on it. The owner of Bush in Canada, decided to let them drop the X in their name "if" they donated some money to Charity. (pretty cool of him)
Anyhoo, like everyone else said. Your guy would have to have the funds to take action on it, if he feels the two are definitely being used for the same purposes.
Don't blame someone for reacting if they think it's close, they're just trying to protect their investment. You would do the same thing.
/devils advocate - nothing more - good luck
Sometimes you need to put yourself in the other persons shoes.
Imagine if you invested an amazing amount of money on your brand and TM'd your name/logo.
Chances are you're going to challenge.
2 examples come to mind from the music industry (of course there's tons more).
In the 70's-80's an Australian band called "The Angels", had to change their name in the USA to Angel City - because of the american band "Angels". Even though they played different styles of music, and the band had the word "The" before Angels -- still had to change it.
The band Bush from the UK, had to change their name to "Bush X" in Canada for the same reason. Again 2 different styles of music. Actually if you read up on it. The owner of Bush in Canada, decided to let them drop the X in their name "if" they donated some money to Charity. (pretty cool of him)
Anyhoo, like everyone else said. Your guy would have to have the funds to take action on it, if he feels the two are definitely being used for the same purposes.
Don't blame someone for reacting if they think it's close, they're just trying to protect their investment. You would do the same thing.
/devils advocate - nothing more - good luck
Don't listen to what this guy says, he wants YOU, and has no clue about trademark law. Trademark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , look at this, if you remove your exclamation you have almost no chance of losing*.
* i'm no lawyer so pro help obv needed.
* i'm no lawyer so pro help obv needed.
He can kiss your ass.
According to the US Trademark & Patent Office, the only thing he has a trademark on is a DRAWING (his logo) as it pertains to a BOARD GAME, to wit: BLAG! (#3104666).
He does NOT have a lock on the word "blag".
He can munch your shorts. Ignore him.
PS, my sister-in-law is a corporate trademark attorney.
According to the US Trademark & Patent Office, the only thing he has a trademark on is a DRAWING (his logo) as it pertains to a BOARD GAME, to wit: BLAG! (#3104666).
He does NOT have a lock on the word "blag".
He can munch your shorts. Ignore him.
PS, my sister-in-law is a corporate trademark attorney.
It's more than enough, if he wanted to protect that too, he should have trademarked it without the ! (though the system probably would not have let him, as it would have become too generic without the exclamation).
HarveyJ
He is - THE CACTUS!
If you're not already making decent coin off of it, why bother?
Honestly, some things really aren't worth the effort.
If it's already making decent money, which seems unlikely as it's a fresh blog, then simply take it down, make yourself a false account for a foreign registrar that doesn't give a shit about US laws, transfer the domain over and reset it back up with the first post being about how it's under new management.
Corroborate your false story by making a fake profile at DP and "selling" it to your fake self.
Ridiculous amount of effort? Sure is. But so is fighting a law suit simply on principal
Honestly, some things really aren't worth the effort.
If it's already making decent money, which seems unlikely as it's a fresh blog, then simply take it down, make yourself a false account for a foreign registrar that doesn't give a shit about US laws, transfer the domain over and reset it back up with the first post being about how it's under new management.
Corroborate your false story by making a fake profile at DP and "selling" it to your fake self.
Ridiculous amount of effort? Sure is. But so is fighting a law suit simply on principal
The mark is using a conjunction of words and the two aren't even similar, in either their structure or their niche. The mark he supposedly has isn't even being used in the fashion in which it was registered. I'd just ignore him and keep doing what you are doing. You don't need to acknowledge him, address him... anything. Just do what you are doing and don't ever do anything that could be seen as competition to his product/niche and you should be fine.
If he brings a legal challenge against then cross that bridge when you come to it. No point is getting all worked up about it now.
If he brings a legal challenge against then cross that bridge when you come to it. No point is getting all worked up about it now.
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