Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

291–293 of 293 posts

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

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Use proper procedure to resolve disputes That's really the depth of your thinking here? Sheesh, why did I bother?

Here's a practical reason if moral reasons don't work for you. If calling them at 2 am for some reason doesn't get the business result you want, and you have to go to court, the court'll ask you what reasonable steps you've already tried to resolve amicably, and the judge will think you're in the wrong when your opponent brings out a log of your 2 am calls to their residential address. Suddenly it'll look like they w…

From my very first comment:

> Two wrongs don't make a right, and it certainly may be imprudent to escalate

The root of the hacker mindset is looking at alternative solutions that go against the common narrative. It sounds like this method worked out for OP, so it is worth considering. I don't think I personally would go down this path due to possible complications, its utter pettiness, and the fact it is very easy to silence phones at off hours. But depending on the situation, maybe it would make sense.

I am a very moral person, hence having thought these things through. You're the one taking the shortcut of assuming anything done through "proper procedure" is moral. In my book, calling the cops on someone is most certainly escalating the situation and causing them personal stress. Deferring to the system is not an absolution from moral reasoning.

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

#292
Dropbox ran into a similar issue, but they were on the other side. They wanted Dropbox.com, but someone else owned it. They kept running under a similar name for a while, until Dropbox.com started advertising for their competitors. Then they threatened to sue Dropbox.com, and Dropbox.com sold the domain to them.

There's a really interesting episode on the Tim Ferris podcast, where Drew Houston shares the story.

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

#293

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 ot…

I mean, if they have to take it to court I would recommend that they countersue for the trademark and the .net domain.
Post reply on HN