*Pretext: I'm not the "coworking cop", and nobody here should be. *But I do passionately stand by my community and support my peers.
I agree with Tara on the "brand confusion" aspect being less of an issue. What IS an issue related to the community is the lack of responsiveness from Sandbox Columbus. The guys behind this stopped by IndyHall to talk to me (and New Work City to talk to one of their members). They seemed to have their act together, and I made it a point to stress the importance of the larger community. I'm disheartened that I spent *my* valuable time with these guys, and they're now alienating themselves from the community that could be supporting them. If that were to become a trend in their behavior, my personal opinion is that I wouldn't want them to be using the term "coworking" to describe themselves any more than Sandbox Suites wants them to be using "Sandbox". If anyone has direct contact with the Sandbox Columbus team, please urge them to step up here and work with the group. -Alex, IndyHall, Philadelphia, -- ----- -- ----- Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: [email protected] visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 6:20 PM, Tara Hunt <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Sasha, > > I don't know if you have anything to worry about, really. Here is my > experience with similar naming: > > Citizen Desk in Wassau existed without ever hurting Citizen Space or > creating any 'brand confusion'. And now there is a Citizen Space in Europe - > no affiliation to ours. Do you have a US trademark on the name? If you do, > can you prove that, thousands of miles from San Francisco a place called > Sandbox Columbus (not the exact same name) will actually threaten your brand > and confuse your customers? I doubt it would hold up in court. > > Sorry if I sound poo-poo on your concerns, but in the essence of openness > in the community, we share ideas/names/information all of the time. We > aren't in competition. > > Tara > > > > On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 3:12 PM, Sasha <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> We at Sandbox Suites in SF have recently learned of a space opening in >> Columbus, Ohio that has chosen to name themselves "Sandbox Columbus". >> They have already created a website and are planning to open in >> March. >> >> We have tried to contact them but to no avail. Sandbox Suites has been >> open since Oct. 2007 and we'll be expanding this month (in SF). >> Obviously, another coworking space with such a similar name will >> create brand confusion (despite the fact that they're far away). We do >> not want anyone to ever think the Columbus space is associated with us >> nor do we want to share any web indexing with that space. >> >> Given how small this community is, we don't want to go the legal >> route, but may be forced to if the owners don't expain themselves or >> change their name. >> >> What do you all think? I think this is the first time this issue came >> up - hopefully, it's not a sign of what's ahead for this great >> community... >> >> Sasha >> >> >> >> > > > -- > tara 'missrogue' hunt > > Book: The Whuffie Factor (http://twurl.nl/qhe1l0) > Company: Citizen Agency (http://citizenagency.com) > Blog: HorsePigCow: Marketing Uncommon (http://horsepigcow.com) > Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/missrogue > phone: 415-694-1951 > fax: 415-727-5335 > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
