Man that's sad, your website is unmistakable and there is no doubt
you are not Twitter. It sounds like it was potentially confusing
before.
Hmmm... outsourcing trademark checking seems to have pitfalls
(i.e. eating into company goodwill).
It makes you really stop and think about building a business
around someone's API doesn't it - that's what we're doing right
now,
but it encourages me to diversify pretty darn fast. I suppose it was
naive of me not to consider just how much you can be beholden to the
API owner in the first place.
It doesn't put me off working with Twitter, but it does make me want
to get some more baskets for these eggs :-)
Thanks for letting us know your situation and good luck.
All the best
Neil
On 13 Aug 2009, at 23:32, Twitlonger wrote:
I recently got a letter by email from a UK law firm representing
Twitter claiming that my websitewww.twitlonger.comwas infringing on
their trade mark and was inherently likely to confuse users. The
version of the website they were objecting to didn't have a similar
font but did use the same birds as the old version of the site
(fair
enough to be asked to remove them).
The timing coincided with a redesign of the site anyway which went
live this week. I emailed them back pointing this out and then
ended
up on the phone with them with the claim being that the site as it
stands now could still be seen as "potentially confusing". I want
to
know how different they expect a site to be (especially when it
doesn't even include the full word "twitter" in the name. Compare
this
to Twitpic, Twitvid etc who are using the same contraction AND the
same typeface.
This feels so much like a legal department doing stuff that is
completely contrary to the Twitter team who have been so
supportive of
the third party community. Of course, all these applications have
been
granted access to be listed in the posted from field in the tweets,
been granted special access to the API via whitelisting which
requires
the application to be named and described and, in many cases, been
registered with OAuth, again requiring the name and description
of the
app.
Has anyone else received similar letters where they have no problem
with the service but can't seem to tell the difference between two
sites if blue is present in each?
:(
Letter copied below.
---
TWITTER - Trade Mark and Website Presentation Issues
We act for Twitter, Inc. in relation to intellectual property
issues
in the UK.
Twitter has asked us to contact you about your
ww.twitlonger.comwebsite
(the..Website..).Twitter
has no objection to the service which you are offering on the
Website.
However, Twitter does need
you to make certain changes to the Website. We have set out the
reasons below.
Your Website
Twitter owns a number of registrations for its TWITTER trade mark,
including Community trade mark
registration number 6392997. Your use of a name for the Website
which
is based on the TWITTER
trade mark is inherently likely to confuse users of the
ww.twitter.com
website into thinking that the
Website is owned or operated by Twitter, when this is not the case.
You are using a font on your Website which is very similar to that
used by Twitter for its TWITTER
logo. You have no doubt chosen to use this font for this very
reason.
You are also using a blue
background and representations of blue birds. These blue birds are
identical to those which Twitter
has previously used on thewww.twitter.comwebsite. The combination
of
these factors and the name
of your Website inevitably increase the likelihood of confusion.
We therefore ask you to confirm that you will, within seven days of
giving the confirmation:
1. incorporate a prominent non-affiliation disclaimer on all
pages of
the Website;
2. permanently stop any use on the Website of a font which is
identical or similar to the font used by
Twitter for its TWITTER logo; and
3. permanently stop any use on the Website of (i) representations
of
blue birds which are identical or
similar to the blue bird design previously or currently used by
Twitter on thewww.twitter.com
website; and (ii) a blue background.