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How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

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Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

#161

Post by JohnFen »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #102
phasetransition wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most smaller firms will require a retainer. $5k is fairly common. I've been able to work with several large firms for work, and several smaller firms for personal stuff. Personally, I much prefer the larger firms. In general their work product, responsiveness, and timeliness is well ahead of small firms. They aren't even that much more expensive for some things. Unfortunately I don't know what the retainer $$ would b…

Sigh. 5k is three months rent for many people. It's not surprising that we don't see more bootstrapped startups from underprivileged people.

This might depend on where you are. In my area, it's unusual to have to provide a retainer at all unless you're doing something big or the lawyer suspects you might have trouble paying your bill later.

Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

#162

Post by neilv »

A long time ago, I got a nastygram from Google, saying one of my domain names infringed on their trademark.

Fortunately, I didn't need the domain, since I didn't want this headache or expense. (The domain name was a pun on "Orkut", intended for a site critiquing the emerging ridiculous influencer behavior, and I'd guess it was protected speech, but I never got around to making the site.)

But the experience didn't seem very Googley to me, so I initiated a domain name transfer to the Stanford email address of one of their founders, then told the nastygram people, so maybe they could have a talk about "Don't Be Evil".

Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

#163

Post by jdsully »

hodgesrm wrote: post #137
phendrenad2 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know?

Signed a legal document in support of an open source initiative against patents that had a section that was confusing and hard to understand. I remember thinking it was probably no big deal and anyway the document was for a good cause. A couple years later that section had legal consequences almost derailed a major transaction involving our company. We could have avoided the whole thing by checking with our lawyer fi…

Theres a big difference between not responding and proactively signing something.

Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

#164

Post by kelnos »

KieranMac wrote: post #136
SoftTalker wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep I'm with you, I am absolutely loathe to hire anyone to do something I could do myself. I've done major home repairs, painting, flooring, kitchen and bath remodels, I do almost all my own auto repairs and maintenance, I do my own laundry, I clean my own house, I cut my own grass. I have neighbors who just pay for someone to do all that without a second thought.

There are certain tasks that you would never do yourself, such as surgery. And there are certain tasks like changing your oil where anyone with patience and diligence can do it themselves. It's just a question of whether you want to spend the time to learn it and do it. Responding to a C&D letter from a Fortune 50 company, I would posit, is more like performing surgery than changing your oil. The cost of being wrong…

The weird bit is when doing it yourself turns out to be more of a hassle and more expensive than paying someone else to do it. Around 15 years ago I decided to learn how to change my own oil. Even after excluding the fixed costs (I bought little ramp things to drive the front of the car up on while I worked underneath, and a container to drain the old oil into), I was surprised at the per-change costs: the cost of the oil itself (and the new filter), as well as the cost to properly dispose of the old oil. Ended up being more expensive than just taking the car to Jiffy Lube and leaving it with them for an hour or so.

That was the first and last time I ever changed my own oil.

Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

#166

Post by mike_hock »

dpedu wrote: post #119
pinkmuffinere wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the risk of sounding very dumb — what were you able to determine from that? I have no idea what it means, almost sounds like the mafia Edit: their about page sounds even more mafia-esque. “Dealogic connects banks and investors in the only truly global network… Firms who use Dealogic see results in increased profitability and productivity… Whether you want to analyze wallet share, execute a deal, align operating un…

> what were you able to determine from that I interpret this as: a company that is successful not because it provides a service that is useful or good, but one that other companies - in this case "financial firms" - are FORCED to buy, usually through compliance or regulatory means. Think of it like an auto insurance company advertising themselves as "your trusted partner on the roads." Yeah I guess, but it's still me…

So yes, like the mafia.

Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

#167

Post by hodgesrm »

jdsully wrote: post #163
hodgesrm wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signed a legal document in support of an open source initiative against patents that had a section that was confusing and hard to understand. I remember thinking it was probably no big deal and anyway the document was for a good cause. A couple years later that section had legal consequences almost derailed a major transaction involving our company. We could have avoided the whole thing by checking with our lawyer fi…

Theres a big difference between not responding and proactively signing something.

Not responding is also an action. Just assuming it's safe to ignore a C&D without understanding possible risks would not be my first choice. For instance it would be helpful to know if you need to seek out additional legal counsel which is potentially time-consuming and expensive.

Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

#168

Post by kelnos »

anticorporate wrote: post #118
NegativeK wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people I see talking about their legal literacy are best described as cocky and dangerous to themselves and others they give advice to. The same behavior shows up with medical literacy. Maybe schooling could help with that.

> Most people I see talking about their legal literacy are best described as cocky and dangerous to themselves and others they give advice to. 100%. I have a side hustle doing etching, engraving, and CNC-type things. The forums and groups for this kind of things are teeming with people who not just believe, but tell others, that copyright and trademark either don't apply to them for $reasons or doesn't even exist for…

That reminds me of people who post blatantly-copyright-infringing videos on YouTube, but put in the description "no copyright intended" (whatever that means) as some sort of defense.

Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

#169

Post by geephroh »

neilv wrote: post #162

A long time ago, I got a nastygram from Google, saying one of my domain names infringed on their trademark. Fortunately, I didn't need the domain, since I didn't want this headache or expense. (The domain name was a pun on "Orkut", intended for a site critiquing the emerging ridiculous influencer behavior, and I'd guess it was protected speech, but I never got around to making the site.) But the experience didn't see…

"Don't [Stop] Be[ing] Evil"

Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech

#170

Post by bombcar »

kelnos wrote: post #164
KieranMac wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are certain tasks that you would never do yourself, such as surgery. And there are certain tasks like changing your oil where anyone with patience and diligence can do it themselves. It's just a question of whether you want to spend the time to learn it and do it. Responding to a C&D letter from a Fortune 50 company, I would posit, is more like performing surgery than changing your oil. The cost of being wrong…

The weird bit is when doing it yourself turns out to be more of a hassle and more expensive than paying someone else to do it. Around 15 years ago I decided to learn how to change my own oil. Even after excluding the fixed costs (I bought little ramp things to drive the front of the car up on while I worked underneath, and a container to drain the old oil into), I was surprised at the per-change costs: the cost of th…

As long as Jiffy Lube doesn’t put the new oil in the radiator.

Sometimes you do things yourself because that’s the only person you trust.

But oil changes are one of those “do it yourself once so you understand it and then let Walmart do it” kind of things.

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