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

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.

Comments

There's another way to protect a brand

[omnichad]

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.

If your handle is really a brand and important to preserve, then register it with the US Patent & Trademark Office. You can register the .com, but you don't need to in order to protect yourself. If it's not important enough for all that, then maybe your "personal brand" is not that important at all.

this is too much.

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Use your real name, not a handle

[nitehawk214]

Except they can and did.