I would humbly suggest that someone from Twitter comments in this
thread sooner rather than later as I am concerned this will end up in
the press with quite a negative spin - unless there is some quick
clear guidance.
Now is time for some PR guys and someone talk directly to Dean please.
Seriously this is important PR don't drop the ball.
All the best
Neil
On 15 Aug 2009, at 12:47, Dale Merritt wrote:
I have been through something very similiar to this with a trademark
dispute I had with a major cable television network. I understand
the dispute process pretty well, as well as what you can or (not
supposed to be able to) and can't trademark. There is a window of
opportunity that you have to dispute it, which is after the mark has
been approved for publication. The only thing with the dispute is
that you are going to spend some pretty good money just to do that.
What you may do is put together a package of documents (Stone's
post), and some hard proof, hopefully coming from Twitter folks
directly that admits that Tweet was coined by users, along with info
that shows screenshots of old twitter pages that show there is no
indication of the word tweet anywhere.
Turn in the package of docs to the examiner assigned to this
trademark application and make contact with them about it after you
sent it registered mail. This may save you tons of money.
Tweet is generic, and there is no way that Tweet can't be seen as a
form of the mark Twitter. Twit, sure that's pretty staight forward,
but tweet I dont think so.
Good luck.
On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 9:48 PM, Andrew Badera <and...@badera.us>
wrote:
Tweet needs to be challenged -- any trademark of that term, and
defense of such, is utter motherf*cking bullshit. Who's up for getting
the resources together for a legal challenge of the trademark? We
users and developers created and popularized the term "tweet" way back
when -- when Twitter was still calling "tweets" "updates"
Twitter keeps going like this and Rome WILL burn.
∞ Andy Badera
∞ This email is: [ ] bloggable [x] ask first [ ] private
∞ Google me: http://www.google.com/search?q=(andrew+badera)+OR+(andy+bader
a)
On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 9:29 PM, avail4one<avail4...@gmail.com> wrote:
> hmmmm, there's been a lot of noise about trademark, my previous
comment a
> few days ago about 'first used in commerce' was to the effect that
they
> aren't actually trading anything - of couse I'm no atty or even
expert but I
> understand that if you aren't actually commencing in commerce for
trade
> using a mark then you're really squatting on a name, and it's
unlikely to
> register such mark for trade with the USG. even if you have loads
of VC so
> ... what exactly are they selling and in what market? if they let
their
> previous app lapse I'm **guessing** they ran into this kind of
> chicken-and-egg trouble.
>
> but the thing is, what you've posted here says nothing about
trademark,
> they're talking about TOS and your accounts and behavior. they are
claiming
> 'intellectual property' to the name, which is arguable i suppose.
I'm not
> exactly sure why you'd register such a domain in the first place,
or at
> least go public about being upset and paranoid when they send you
letters of
> intimidation ... but that's your game i suppose. they can
definitely shut
> you down and block access to your software, and they can lay out
the money
> to attempt to get the domain revoked, but if they don't have a valid
> trademark registered i'm not sure they're going to sue you
personally, it
> would be a risky battle in my opinion. and if you happen to only
have two
> nickles to rub together what would be the point? I think at this
stage it's
> about intimidation, and if you choose to fight it it's a losing
battle and
> waste of time for you IMHO.
>
> have a fantastic day.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 5:18 PM, Dean Collins <d...@cognation.net>
wrote:
>>
>> Sorry Duane, This is the first time I've ever had legal action in
any of
>> the internet website projects I've worked on.
>>
>>
>>
>> I now know the difference.
>>
>>
>>
>> Twitter inc sent MyTwitterButler a cease and desist notice to
comply with
>> the following;
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> with the threat of cancellation of all my twitter accounts and
possible
>> legal action to enforce their intellectual property rights.
>>
>>
>>
>> As for the ‘my characterization of the events’….would you
like to listen
>> to the phone call?
>>
>>
>>
>> (and yes the lawyer knows they were being recorded – all of my
calls both
>> inbound and outbound get recorded to my Trixbox asterisk ip-pbx).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Dean Collins
>> d...@mytwitterbutler.com
>> +1-212-203-4357 New York
>> +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial).
>> +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: twitter-development-talk@googlegroups.com
>> [mailto:twitter-development-t...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of
Duane
>> Roelands
>> Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 7:44 PM
>> To: Twitter Development Talk
>> Subject: [twitter-dev] Re: MyTwitterButler.com Legal issues
Update 2
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I'm afraid I'm not willing to accept Dean's characterization of
events
>>
>> since he's been lying from the get go (e.g. claiming "Twitter's
suing
>>
>> me" when nothing of the kind was happening). I give no
credibility to
>>
>> those who practice deception in order to win people to their cause.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Aug 14, 7:31 pm, Dewald Pretorius <dpr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Unless something drastic changes in their approach, I think we
as a
>>
>> > developer community should all rise and give them a standing
ovation
>>
>> > for a brilliant performance in pissing people off.
>
>
> --
> \./'\./ /'\ \ ]. /'\./'\ /'\ /'\./
>
--
Dale Merritt
Fol.la MeDia, LLC
