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Handling Accusations of Trademark Infringement?

Posted by Cliff on from the fighting-about-words-with-more-words dept.

Dredd2Kad asks: "Recently I've been accused of trademark infringement because of something in the metadata of my website. What are my rights? Should I stand and fight or let it go? Part of me doesn't care, because my website is nothing but a special interest group, the other part of me is mad as hell that someone has come to my place and threatened me. I feel the plaintiff chose to trademark something really generic (HardRadio), and my choice of metadata (hard radio) should be allowed some wiggle room, especially since I'm not a commercial entity like they are. Please read my story and let me know what you think. I know someone out there must have had a similar problem." In addition to seeking professional legal advice, what other steps can one take to handle these problems?

3 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. slashdot by Finuvir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Get you page slashdotted -> problem solved

    --
    Why is anything anything?
  2. Meta data is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google gives it almost no weight (descriptions get a little bit of weight, but keywords almost none), and neither does any other modern search engine. It was just too easy to abuse, so they rightly dropped the idea. I'm not saying you necessarily need to give up your fight, but you're fighting over an antiquated piece of search optimization.

  3. Cost Them Money by Euphonious+Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    For every message their lawyer sends, ask questions that will take lots of time. Stall, ask for further explanations, examples. The client gets billed for it all at extortionate rates. While it enriches the lawyers inequitably, it also makes the client less inclined to keep pursuing the matter when it's just something stupid.

    Ask for proof that they have registered "hard radio" in addition to the one-word bumpycaps "HardRadio". Ask for proof that in addition to "HardRadio" they registered "hardradio". Ask if they are claiming the words "hard" and "radio" individually. Ask if they are claiming "radio hard". Use your imagination.