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How SEOMoz sent us a takedown notice.

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Re: How SEOMoz sent us a takedown notice.

#81

Post by andrewdumont »

rajahafify wrote: post #67

Its funny to see Moz employee defending their company. This is HN. Most people here is highly opinionated and most has made up their mind. Nothing you say can ever justify what your company did. Just do what Opera did and take back your lawyer letter. Don't make this mess any bigger and you'd do fine. If you want, you can prove that Moz can do SEO better than Doz. SEO is irrelevant these days though. Product is what…

I want people to understand the why, that's why I'm here. My goal isn't to convince people to change their mind. The truth of the matter is that we were put into a difficult position, and with the information we had, this was what we viewed as our only course of action.

Re: How SEOMoz sent us a takedown notice.

#83

Post by [deleted] »

mindcrime wrote: post #16

Wow, Moz does not come out looking good here. Doz and Moz are not the same word, don't mean the same thing (I'm not even sure either word actually means anything ) and are only similar in the most superficial possible way. Moz should quit fvcking around with lawyers and filings and trademarks and whatever legal bullshit and just focus on innovating and being better at what they do.

[deleted]

Re: How SEOMoz sent us a takedown notice.

#85

Post by xelipe »

mindcrime wrote: post #16

Wow, Moz does not come out looking good here. Doz and Moz are not the same word, don't mean the same thing (I'm not even sure either word actually means anything ) and are only similar in the most superficial possible way. Moz should quit fvcking around with lawyers and filings and trademarks and whatever legal bullshit and just focus on innovating and being better at what they do.

Does Moz also claim a trademark for Woz? Moz and Woz are very similar, especially if you are dyslexic.

Re: How SEOMoz sent us a takedown notice.

#86

Post by Ryan_Watson »

benatkin wrote: post #14

I don't think there's a conflict at all, and I hope the trademark office and/or the courts get it right. If you want to protect against indirect competitors rhyming with you, please pick a name that's longer than one syllable.

In trademark law, a mark can be "Confusingly Similar." Doz differs from Moz, but it may still infringe on Moz's trademark. Because Doz has a similar spelling and operates in the same industry as Moz, it may lead a "reasonable person" to believe the trademarks are related. The court will hold that Doz infringed on Moz's trademark if a reasonable person would find the two confusingly similar.

Re: How SEOMoz sent us a takedown notice.

#87

Post by eridius »

rajahafify wrote: post #67

Its funny to see Moz employee defending their company. This is HN. Most people here is highly opinionated and most has made up their mind. Nothing you say can ever justify what your company did. Just do what Opera did and take back your lawyer letter. Don't make this mess any bigger and you'd do fine. If you want, you can prove that Moz can do SEO better than Doz. SEO is irrelevant these days though. Product is what…

It's funny that you're talking as if all of HN thinks Moz is in the wrong here. There's plenty of comments on this story that suggest otherwise.

Re: How SEOMoz sent us a takedown notice.

#88

Post by Domenic_S »

andrewdumont wrote: post #62
MartinCron wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's obvious confusion and brand dilution of Moz that can come as a result, and it's our duty to protect our trademark I just can't agree with this assertion. There is not a legitimate fear that you're going to lose trademark protection just because someone is using a similar (but obviously different) name. This isn't the same thing as Xerox or Kleenex turning into a general noun, this is just shameful bullying.

It's not a fear, it's a legal obligation. If we don't protect our trademark in instances like this, where we are aware of infringement, we can be legally estopped from protecting our trademark in future cases.

Has this ever been tested in court? Interested to see a case where this has actually happened.

Re: How SEOMoz sent us a takedown notice.

#90

Post by qeorge »

MartinCron wrote: post #18

There's a particular irony that the Moz folks think that the Doz name is too similar to be allowed, when they're using an abbreviation for Mozilla that has been around for years and years.

Its intentional too. Rand specifically choose the name SEOMoz to benefit from the brand confusion.

From the horse's mouth (Mixergy interview):

"Andrew: What does SEOmoz mean?

Rand: When we started up, we were looking for a name that was short. That had the word SEO in there so that people would know what the blog was about. And, I was a big fan of the Mozilla Foundation, with DMoz and ChefMoz. What was the other ones that they were doing at the time? There was, like, MapMoz, there was a bunch of them at the time that were coming out. That were based around this open source, weird transparent.

[...]

So, that was SEOmoz, was taking SEO and combining it with the moz ethos. There you go."

Source: http://mixergy.com/seomoz-rand-fishkin-interview/

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