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Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

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Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#151

Post by bshep »

bhartzer wrote: post #126
bshep wrote: post #107

Out of curiosity, I have a similar question in the same vein. I own MY_LAST_NAME.com, me and my family use it for email, ( i.e. firname@lastnane.com ) should we register a trademark to protect ourselves from this type of bullying? Are we safe since its our own last name?

Personal names generally cannot be trademarked. You would most likely need to have a business or other use case of your last name in order to be granted a trademark.

Does this apply even if I have an LLC with my name?

TBH this scares me quite a bit since we have all the family’s emails tied to the domain, not only would it be a huge pain to lose it but also a security risk. Weve had the domain for 10yrs or more at this point…

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#153

Post by scrollinondubs »

IANAL but pretty sure trademark is based on first provable public use for commercial purposes. You should be able to contest the mark on that basis. Just screenshot the WHOIS record showing you had the domain 7yrs ago and hire a lawyer to write a cease & desist to them. Just because you hold the trademark doesn't make it necessarily defensible if it's proven that it was obtained surreptitiously. Depending on what you learn from the lawyer and how aggressive you want to play it threaten counter suit for damages and escalate.

But agree with all comments: get a lawyer before you do anything.

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#154

Post by mfrye0 »

prepend wrote: post #42
otterley wrote: post #21

Every answer in this thread is wrong except for "hire an attorney and work with them to figure out what the best option for you is." Do not follow any "free legal advice" from HN -- and I'm speaking as an actual licensed attorney.

I don’t question your motives in this instance, but I always pay extra attention when someone’s advice is to hire them or someone like them. Obviously, “hire a lawyer,” is sometimes right. But if I hired a lawyer every time I was told to, I would be out hundreds of hours of billing fees. Anecdotally, I’ve never fucked anything up royally. That doesn’t mean that I made the right decision, but is something I strive for…

This. While I respect lawyers immensely, I think half the battle is deciding when to use a lawyer vs handling it yourself.

With that said, this guy definitely needs to consult with a lawyer.

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#155

Post by kohanz »

phonebanshee wrote: post #109
ksec wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As you said "solicitor" I'm guessing you're not in the USA. But then they use Pacific Time Zone.

Which makes it a very good bet that they're Canadian.

Not really a dead giveaway. Lawyer is the more commonly-used term in Canada too.

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#156

Post by logicalmonster »

hn_throwaway_69 wrote: post #51

I take the view that there needs to be a penalty for people who send out these letters but fail in their ultimate claim. If you send cease and desist letters without merit you should be forced to indemnify the respondent for the entirety of their attorney's fees and pay exemplary damages. This would require lawyers to make a careful assessment about prospects of success, rather than hoping to scare the other side int…

This is a great idea.

What is particularly galling to me is how media companies trying to protect their content rights make completely meritless legal claims such as mass sending false DMCA requests to video sites saying that they own some work that is completely false, with no punishment for spamming out factually incorrect claims and harming people. That whole messed up system has been commented on many times in other threads.

For actual legal filings, the only issue is that how a "case without merit" is defined is probably very subjective, because legislation can be very complex and lawyers can make a legal argument backed up by some statute for just about anything. There needs to be an extremely high standard for what constitutes a meritless case that should be punished in this way, because otherwise it also makes seeking restitution for wrongs risky, and that's not a good outcome either.

Similarly good ideas in this vein IMO include: simplifying the language of laws, making the actual text of laws more easily accessible, and sunsetting/time-limits on old legislation so that old ideas that no longer make sense aren't kept permanent due solely to bureaucratic inertia.

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#158

Post by ChrisLomont »

nicbou wrote: post #55
prepend wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t question your motives in this instance, but I always pay extra attention when someone’s advice is to hire them or someone like them. Obviously, “hire a lawyer,” is sometimes right. But if I hired a lawyer every time I was told to, I would be out hundreds of hours of billing fees. Anecdotally, I’ve never fucked anything up royally. That doesn’t mean that I made the right decision, but is something I strive for…

In my experience, a lawyer will also nudge you towards whichever course involves keeping a lawyer involved. They'll never tell you "if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't keep going".

I've consulted lawyers perhaps a dozen times in life, and not once have they attempted to make me use them. Most actually help me in the 30 or so minutes free to find a better solution. A few times I had to go all in and hire them: I won a copyright infringement suit, stopping someone from selling knockoffs of things I sell, I needed some to represent me in states half way across the country to get a trust drawn in that state rejiggered, I won a case against a landlord. Each of those times I needed one to screw it up by not hiring a lawyer could have cost me significant money. And in each case, by hiring one when I was in in the right, the lawyers delivered. And only the copyright suit was expensive to pay lawyers for - the rest would amount to a few months rent to obtain significantly more in return.

This is also the experience of a few friends I consult each time I weight "do I need a lawyer". So my experience is 100% the opposite of yours.

How many times have you used a lawyer for something and had your example happen? How many times have they not done what you claim? Care to share examples?

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#159

Post by mlyle »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #112
otterley wrote: post #21

Every answer in this thread is wrong except for "hire an attorney and work with them to figure out what the best option for you is." Do not follow any "free legal advice" from HN -- and I'm speaking as an actual licensed attorney.

Can't up vote this enough. 1) This is an ex co-worker . I believe she's well versed in such things. I get nothing for this mention. https://kinneyfirm.com/ 2) That said, one of the keys to trademark is being in the same industry, such that the public might get confused. Apple Computer striking a deal with Apple Records, once the former started to sell music, is a good example. Prior to that, there was no (legal or ma…

> 2) That said, one of the keys to trademark is being in the same industry, such that the public might get confused.

Note that this is generally true for trademark law, but there are things like the ICANN/WIPO UDRP that can be used to expropriate domain names that have somewhat of a different standard.

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#160

Post by [deleted] »

theartfuldodger wrote: post #26

This has happened to me several times, I have never taken it seriously or put much effort into responding. I usually would go straight to the throat and very personal. Publish their letter on the domain they seek, capture all lawyer and company details and publish to site. Use opsec for phone numbers, call them at terrible hours ( at home) to discuss offers of payment. They are trying to bleed you with superior resou…

[deleted]
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