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Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

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Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#11

Post by jhubert »

nickconfer wrote: post #9
JonathanWCurd wrote: post #5

Not saying its the route I would take but you could share your story and the site name here and at other social sites like digg, reddit, etc and internet vigilantes might just do their thing to drive them away. I have seen it happen before with design / logo theft etc.

I'd go this route. It will help you out the thief, get you some links from any added press, and possibly even help market your company further. Lawyers are expensive and you could battle someone for a very long time. Is that really what you want to do starting out the gate? You'll get too distracted by this, focus on your company. At the end of the day people type .com in first and if you have the links, your domain…

Agreed about Lawyers. I am happy to spend money on them as necessary for the right things, but this seems like something that could be very lengthly if not approached the right way... and one thing I know about hiring lawyers is that long problems have big bills. :p

Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#12

Post by noonespecial »

Here's some advice I learned the hard way.

Every time you register a dotcom you intend to use for business, register it as a trademark. Its cheap and easy. Just consider it part of the cost of domain registry.

This is helpful in two ways. First, it will prevent you from accidentally registering a domain that is too close to someone else's trademark (and losing your domain later in a nasty surprise kind of way). Second, it will give you a nearly bullet-proof automatic way to file a complaint with ICANN that will almost always result in you being given the offending domain.

In any case, head on over to http://www.icann.org/en/udrp to see what your options are. Just filing the complaint may be enough to cause your shadow to move on to less proactive victims.

Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#13

Post by JonathanWCurd »

jhubert wrote: post #10
JonathanWCurd wrote: post #5

Not saying its the route I would take but you could share your story and the site name here and at other social sites like digg, reddit, etc and internet vigilantes might just do their thing to drive them away. I have seen it happen before with design / logo theft etc.

Yeah, I like this route a fair bit. I'd like to think that I'm not the only one who gets frustrated by people who would do this type of thing. Thanks a lot for the suggestion. :) My hesitation on something like this (and also the reason I didn't put our company in this post) is because I don't want to give him any unnecessary attention until necessary. Plan of attack being worked out now...

Keep us updated. No doubt there are people here who can help spread the word.

Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#14

Post by jason_slack »

noonespecial wrote: post #12

Here's some advice I learned the hard way. Every time you register a dotcom you intend to use for business, register it as a trademark. Its cheap and easy. Just consider it part of the cost of domain registry. This is helpful in two ways. First, it will prevent you from accidentally registering a domain that is too close to someone else's trademark (and losing your domain later in a nasty surprise kind of way). Secon…

isn't it like $325 to file a trademark?

Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#15

Post by kaisdavis »

jason_slack wrote: post #14
noonespecial wrote: post #12

Here's some advice I learned the hard way. Every time you register a dotcom you intend to use for business, register it as a trademark. Its cheap and easy. Just consider it part of the cost of domain registry. This is helpful in two ways. First, it will prevent you from accidentally registering a domain that is too close to someone else's trademark (and losing your domain later in a nasty surprise kind of way). Secon…

isn't it like $325 to file a trademark?

If you think 'this is a viable business, something that I want to spend my time working on to make something great' isn't $325 chump change?

Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#16

Post by jason_slack »

kaisdavis wrote: post #15
jason_slack wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

isn't it like $325 to file a trademark?

If you think 'this is a viable business, something that I want to spend my time working on to make something great' isn't $325 chump change?

True, in the grand scheme. You make a good point.

Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#17

Post by justin »

Why do you care? It is unlikely he will ever succeed if you are executing well and he just copies you. Also, you have the .com (i.e. the domain people will actually type in and go to by default). He has the .org (i.e. the domain that no one will ever think to go to).

Brush your shoulders off and focus on the important stuff.

Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#18

Post by jhubert »

jason_slack wrote: post #14
noonespecial wrote: post #12

Here's some advice I learned the hard way. Every time you register a dotcom you intend to use for business, register it as a trademark. Its cheap and easy. Just consider it part of the cost of domain registry. This is helpful in two ways. First, it will prevent you from accidentally registering a domain that is too close to someone else's trademark (and losing your domain later in a nasty surprise kind of way). Secon…

isn't it like $325 to file a trademark?

Yeah, I started filing it this morning before writing this post. Trying to cover all of my bases. :)

Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#19

Post by jhubert »

justin wrote: post #17

Why do you care? It is unlikely he will ever succeed if you are executing well and he just copies you. Also, you have the .com (i.e. the domain people will actually type in and go to by default). He has the .org (i.e. the domain that no one will ever think to go to). Brush your shoulders off and focus on the important stuff.

From an execution standpoint, I fully agree with you. That's what I did when we first found out that the domain had been registered and saw the site he had put up. I collected information and then left it alone to focus on our March 1st launch.

Now that he is being more aggressive, it's rude and a nuisance. He setup a similar facebook group to ours with a hyphen in the name instead of a space; He is tweeting about it and it's showing up in our name searches; etc.

Also, he is offering something similar to what we are offering as a (very inexpensive) service, for free; Which is just annoying and potentially confusing.

Trying not to focus on it. Serenity Now. :)

Re: Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

#20

Post by jhubert »

JonathanWCurd wrote: post #13
jhubert wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I like this route a fair bit. I'd like to think that I'm not the only one who gets frustrated by people who would do this type of thing. Thanks a lot for the suggestion. :) My hesitation on something like this (and also the reason I didn't put our company in this post) is because I don't want to give him any unnecessary attention until necessary. Plan of attack being worked out now...

Keep us updated. No doubt there are people here who can help spread the word.

Thanks. I definitely will. :)
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