SparkFun Gets a Cease and Desist Letter • Hacker News Board

Re: SparkFun Gets a Cease and Desist Letter

#21

Post by noonespecial » Sat, Oct 24, 2009, 7:43 AM UTC

nas wrote: post #5

Not cool. I realize that companies feel like they have to protect their trademark, even in borderline cases. However, this seems like a boneheaded move for SPARC. People using SparkFun tend to be young techies, the kind of people who might go on to become the hardware purchasing decision makers in larger companies.

Having been through this before (posted below), it occurs to me that Sun/SI may not have any idea whats going on here. This could all be the result of an overzealous paralegal just trying to make-work. There are likely geeks at Sun/SI who use and enjoy Sparkfun products. One well placed call to the right guy at Sun/SI could solve the whole thing. They could reach a $0 "settlement" where Sun/SI protects their mark by "taking action", and Sparkfun gets to go on and conduct business as usual.

On the other hand, as I said, if Sun/SI really wants that name, there is likely little Sparkfun can do to stop them taking it.

Edit: Fujitsu is also connected to SI as a founding member.

Re: SparkFun Gets a Cease and Desist Letter

#22

Post by ErrantX » Sat, Oct 24, 2009, 10:54 AM UTC

nitrogen wrote: post #19

SparkFun has been operating nationally (internationally?) for years. You'd think somebody at SPARC would've noticed by now. If I were SparkFun, I'd expect that SPARC's inaction over all these years would count for something.

They applied for a trademark recently though; I imagine that is what sparked (oh dear :() this off.

Re: SparkFun Gets a Cease and Desist Letter

#23

Post by goodkarma » Sat, Oct 24, 2009, 11:38 AM UTC

Is it really that ridiculous? I'm not a lawyer, but I can see both sides to this.

The whole purpose of a trademark is to protect your brand from anything that could be construed as "confusingly similar". Spark and Sparc sound the same and are nearly identical in spelling, and they are both involved in the tech industry.

Whomever made the decision to send a C&D wasn't completely out of line in their reasoning. (Especially since it does not cost a whole lot to send a C&D. It will cost a lot more to take it to court, which I expect will be a factor in SparkFun's decision making process.)

That said, saying the two similar names are in the "tech industry" may not be sufficient justification for the trademark dispute any longer. The industry has so much breadth nowadays and there are so many businesses involved, as long as SparkFun can prove that there is enough differentiation between what they do and what Sparc does they can probably get around it (with some legal tapdancing).

This would probably not be an issue if SparkFun sold handmade chocolate candies :-)

Re: SparkFun Gets a Cease and Desist Letter

#24

Post by timmaah » Sat, Oct 24, 2009, 5:02 PM UTC

noonespecial wrote: post #21

nas wrote: post #5

Not cool. I realize that companies feel like they have to protect their trademark, even in borderline cases. However, this seems like a boneheaded move for SPARC. People using SparkFun tend to be young techies, the kind of people who might go on to become the hardware purchasing decision makers in larger companies.

Having been through this before (posted below), it occurs to me that Sun/SI may not have any idea whats going on here. This could all be the result of an overzealous paralegal just trying to make-work. There are likely geeks at Sun/SI who use and enjoy Sparkfun products. One well placed call to the right guy at Sun/SI could solve the whole thing. They could reach a $0 "settlement" where Sun/SI protects their mark by…

That Sun/SI may not be behind it is B.S. and not an excuse. The law firm represents the person/corporation paying them. If SPARC doesn't want these sent out, they would tell the law firm or fire them and hire a new one.

Re: SparkFun Gets a Cease and Desist Letter

#25

Post by timmaah » Sat, Oct 24, 2009, 5:08 PM UTC

ilovecomputers wrote: post #13

Why does this happen in this day and age? Another case of trademark trolling: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8810200

I'm loving that Rock Art has been getting so much press about this. Their sales must be sky-rocketing.

I live a town over from them and am lucky enough to be able to pick up their beers in any liquor store and it is on tap in any restaurant or bar around here. Their ridge-runner is my choice during winter.

Re: SparkFun Gets a Cease and Desist Letter

#26

Post by NikkiA » Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 12:29 AM UTC

NathanKP wrote: post #14

chaosmachine wrote: post #2

Firefox thinks sparc.org is an "attack site": http://i36.tinypic.com/f2trth.png

I found this as well. I think that he meant to link to sparc.com but instead linked to spark.org which is a known attack site. By the way sparc.com appears to be done right now. Its probably DDOSed by all the people complaining.

No, sparc.org is the right domain, most likely someone thought it funny to report sparc.org (although google's malware interception page states that it's been reported several times over the last couple of months, so maybe Sparc Intl. really are hosting malware?)