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WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me

whoshere.zendesk.com

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Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me

#91

Post by brudgers »

jsprinkles wrote: post #37
jrockway wrote: post #30

Earlier 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…

"Do you really think a successful business can be run while valuing your marks at a dollar? It's business."

To the degree that the business is selling trademark licenses, a case for extremely vigorous pursuit of questionable infringement is justified. On the other hand, if one's business is software development, it is hard to see the described actions as much more than a distraction.

Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me

#94

Post by slantyyz »

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #80
lathamcity wrote: post #69

I'm siding with WhosHere on this one (although it doesn't matter). Here's why. First, they asked Brian to change the name from "Who's Near Me" to something else, and he apparently agreed to, but his rebranding was to "WNM (Who's Near Me) Live" which is basically the same thing except that "Who's Near Me" is written smaller and acronym-ized in the brand. But it's still the same name. Second, a lot of people are talkin…

> I'm tired of the fake arrogance in C.S. culture I thought the same thing when the opening sentence of his blog post mentioned he had been coded since age 7. I have no reason to believe or not believe that point. But I don't see how that has anything to do with the problem he was about to outline in his blog. Apparently he has a huge trust fund... he could have opened with that. But I'm still in the "they're generic…

The problem with e-mail is that people often don't take a step back before replying, especially when they're angry.

That usually results in long, ranty emails that can be all over the place.

Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me

#95

Post by slantyyz »

tjic wrote: post #62
zainny wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These emails are so strange. The tone taken by both parties is just so...unbelievable. For example, Brian's opening salvo "Neither of these options are remotely acceptable to me. It is also offensive to me that you would think my time was only worth $100/hr, considering I turn down requests offering 4 times that rate regularly." Seriously, "regularly" turning down offers for work at a rate of over $400/hr? And also,…

> seriously, "regularly" turning down offers for work at a rate of over $400/hr? Yeah, that line stuck out like a store thumb.

> seriously, "regularly" turning down offers for work at a rate of over $400/hr?

I wonder what the hourly rate of a small-firm lawyer is.

Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me

#97

Post by wavephorm »

Their trademark probably shouldn't have been granted. This company didn't trademark the word "Who", they trademarked "WhosHere" which is quite obviously a different word. This reminds me of McDonald's who go around the world suing every company that has a food product starting with "Mc" (eg. a Scotch distillery founded a hundred years before McDonald's even got sued). Unfortunately the US patent and trademark system is broken and can be easily manipulated by entities with money, and when abused by assholes like this, it just makes our world suck even more.

I hope their actions haunt these individuals for the rest of their hopefully short careers as business founders.

Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me

#98

Post by jkubicek »

tdfx wrote: post #81
zainny wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These emails are so strange. The tone taken by both parties is just so...unbelievable. For example, Brian's opening salvo "Neither of these options are remotely acceptable to me. It is also offensive to me that you would think my time was only worth $100/hr, considering I turn down requests offering 4 times that rate regularly." Seriously, "regularly" turning down offers for work at a rate of over $400/hr? And also,…

Now after reading these emails, he comes across as a complete jackass. I agree. But WhosHere looks worse for the options they're offering him. Both are pretty terrible.

They clearly stated that the initial offer was just the beginning of negotiations. I didn't see anything wrong with the offer.

Re: WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me

#100

Post by sunwooz »

gklitt wrote: post #17
BoudahTalenka wrote: post #8

They are patent trolls. The worst is that maybe they not even realize it.

Is it common to use the word "patent troll" to describe any type of legal troll nowadays? Just wondering because as far as I know there are no patents involved here, just a trademark.

Should simply be, "Troll".
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