Let's do a kickstarter defence fund for WhosHere too and let the crowd decide! Bread and circuses.
Wouldn't you much rather have people spend their money on better causes e.g. actually saving lives than pathetic disputes like this ?
WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
41–50 of 145 posts
Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Obviously. Let's say Trademarks trolls, I simply used their own term.
If we are going down THAT road, it's "IP Trolls" then.
I thought that Patent Trolls are the ones that just buy up patents and then go hunting to violators while they themselves do not actually make anything that uses the patents. That is shitty to do. I would imagine that Trademark Trolls and IP Trolls would be the same type of thing. This is not that. They have a Trademark on the product they are actively developing/selling/whatever and are trying to defend it. NOW... they are shit bags for thinking the other dude is violating their mark but that is a whole different thing.
Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's true. But you don't have to send an extremely nasty letter with the two conditions, "give us all your assets and consult for us" or "be sued for $100,000". That's where my anger comes from. They could have said, "We think your name is similar to ours, and to ensure that we can defend our name in court in the future, we need you to license it from us for $1." But instead, they chose to be shit bags. (I could be…
"Hey, Steve. It's John at Cisco. We know you don't like the name iPhone OS since you have iPads now, and we really appreciate the prior settlement with you regarding the mark iPhone. "I know you want to use the name iOS, and to ensure that we can defend our mark in court in the future, we need you to license the mark IOS from us for $1." Who wouldn't take that? Do you really think a successful business can be run whi…
I'm not going to argue specifics with you, as I'm not a trademark lawyer. But I bet that if you have a trademark and are worried about a competitor's similar trademark, things can be worked out in a legally sound way without either of the two conditions that WhosHere came up with. You do not have to threaten nuclear war if you just want your neighbor to return the drill he borrowed yesterday.
Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
#44I find it interesting that the in his post, Brian insinuates that he can't afford to fight this legal battle. However, in the emails between him and the WhosHere people he talks about his large trust fund.
Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trademarks and patents are two different things.
Obviously. Let's say Trademarks trolls, I simply used their own term.
Yes. WhosHere's answer starts with "We are not patent trolls". They should clearly change it to trademark.
But really their gripe seems to be with borrowing the app concept which they agreed to. But they can only defend their trademark.
Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
#46There are two issues that come to mind when I decide how much sympathy to allocate:
1) Is the trademark sufficiently unique to have merit?
2) Is the infringing trademark similar enough to cause confusion?
I'll give WhosHere a pass on #1. It's a poorly-chosen trademark but I've seen worse. However, nobody can claim with a straight face that customers are confusing WhosNearMe for WhosHere. This is preposterous on its face.
This jury finds for the defendant.
Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
#47Brian's blog posting (now with a donation button):
"... the deadline to file a response to the lawsuit had passed
and that WhosHere had requested a motion for default judgment
(meaning that they would automatically receive everything they
had asked for - which would effectively bankrupt me..."
"The lawyers I have spoken to thus far are asking me for at
least a $10,000 retainer just to get started on the process
and I don't have those kind of resources laying around."
"I was born wealthy; I have an obscene trust fund. I assure you
that if required, I will obtain the best legal representation
for corporate litigation in the Silicon Valley. After your
last proposal, I will resist this legal action well beyond
what makes any financial sense, simply out of principal."
"Quick tip: When you do engage the other side (or their
lawyer), whatever you do, never say the line “I’m taking this
all the way to trial, I don’t care what this costs me”.
Everyone says that. Everyone. That doesn’t work with someone
like me. I smell blood. “Oh really, you don’t care what this
costs you? Alright then, let’s find out how much you really
don’t care.” People who say they don’t care about the costs
often cave sooner, because they are showing that they’re weak.
They’re showing that they really don’t have much solid to
fight you with except their loudly stated tolerance for pain.
That tolerance is easy to test. And it’s usually very low when
there’s not much else but puffery to back it up. Any modestly
wise person cares about the financial effects of litigation.
Don’t try to pretend you’re stupid, or else you’re going to
look stupid."
Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
#48Seriously... they are not the same. When I think "Who's here?" I think who is in the same place I am. Not just near me. If I am home and someone comes to my house... they are here. If I am home and someone goes to the house across the street... they are near me... but not here.
If "Who's Here" and "Who's Near Me" are close enough to cause a problem... someone needs to warn Facebook that their new app Camera is pretty friggin' close to the app that Apple already had. What was that called? Oh right... CAMERA.
Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
#49Reading between the lines given the complete lack of similarity between the names, it seems to me you are grasping at straws because your own business model is not viable. If I were an investor, I would really question the sustainability of your startup given you are having to use vc money to shut down competitors as opposed to building constructively a sustainable business. Just my 2 cents.
Um, WhosHere has over 5 million downloads I don't think they asked them to change their name to save their business model.
Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
#50I don't get it. If you are the small bootstrapped ultra-busy startup founder, why continue to concern yourself with this stuff. He was willing to rebrand his app, even though the trademark registration was apparently not finalized at this point. So at which point did they feel entitled to make the demands they were making?
As a startup your trademark/brand is one of the most valuable asset you have.
Only inexperienced/naive startups don't defend it vigorously.