Company Takes Over Well-Known OSS Developer's Name Because the Domain Was Free

Posted by msmash on Wednesday June 6, 2018 @04:00AM from the messy-situations dept.

New submitter Fatalis writes: Substack is a venture capital funded startup for subscription-based newsletters, and it admittedly chose its name following the advice from a Paul Graham (co-founder of Y Combinator) article to prefer names not registered in the .com zone. The same name has also been the user handle for a prolific open-source developer who now finds themselves competing for recognition in the tech space with a capital backed company. The lesson seems to be for developers to protect their personal brand by registering a domain name with the .com extension due to it being perceived as the default.

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Sucks if you have a popular name. by jellomizer · 2018-06-06 04:13 · Score: 3, Interesting

Or in my case a name of a sports star. However the persons name has always been tricky in the domain world.
Just if Microsoft tried to sue MikeRowe.com Because the actor MikeRowe phonically is similar.

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If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
this is too much. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-06 04:16 · Score: 5, Interesting

Now you have to make sure your new company name or product doesn't collide with a fucking internet user handle? Nope. If your handle is important enough to you, trademark it or stfu.
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4801:qvpw13.2.1