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I HAVE TO CHANGE MY NAME!
By JLP | March 24, 2006
I found out today that “All Things Financial” is a registered trademark belonging to First National Corporation. So, I will have to change the name of this blog. I’m working on it right now. I can’t believe I let a stupid thing like this happen.
I think what messed me up was that when I first started to set up this blog, typed in http://allthingsfinancialblog.com it came up an empty page. I registered the URL with godaddy.com and everything seemed fine.
Let this be a warning to all you other bloggers out there.
Topics: Miscellaneous | 18 Comments »
March 24th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Ahhh…sorry, JLP. For all you bloggers out there, you should always do a free search in the database at the US Patent and Trademark Office website (aka TESS).
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=5r5sgt.1.1
March 24th, 2006 at 11:44 am
Bummer
March 24th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Wow that stinks can’t you just change your name to “All Things Financial Blog” or is that not enough of a deviation?
March 24th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
How’d you find out? You came accross it on a search, or did they contact you?
March 24th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
They sent him a C&D letter…
March 24th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
I’d suggest dropping “blog” from your new domain name.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Well for God’s sake don’t call yourself Canadian Financial Stuff, or I’ll have to SUE your ass too!!! I can’t afford any more lawyers fees…
–C8j
March 24th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Can’t you be ‘All Financial Things’?
Bummer on the C&D letter. Let me know to where I should re-route my links.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Are you sure? What about all those other sites like MacAddict.com or MacLovers.com? You aren’t AllThingsFinancial.com…
Another example, http://www.bestbuysux.org. I’m sure they don’t own the Best Buy trademark.
Just want to make sure you know all your rights. I am in no way a lawyer.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Man, this really sucks. I’m with mapgirl on this one. The don’t own the words, “All” “Things” and “Financial”.
My buddy runs a site that used to be called heismanprojection.com. He collects actual Heisman votes, and runs a regionally weighted projection. He has nailed the winner and the percentage of votes four years in a row. Last year he received a c&d letter from the Heisman Trust. He changed the name to stiffarmtrophy.com, and all references on the site were to the “H word.”
I hope you can beat this.
March 24th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
They wait over 1.5 years to notice this? That sucks!
March 24th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
By the way, I would remove the hyperlink to their site. You don’t want to help them advertise and generate traffic.
March 24th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
That really sucks JLP. Bummer…
March 24th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
JLP – Sorry I didn’t reply to your email earlier. I can’t access that particular email account from work. And I apologize for posting an expired link.
To search the TESS database, go to http://www.uspto.gov. Then in the left sidebar, click on Trademarks. At the next page, in the middle column, click on the first link, SEARCH Trademarks. At the next page, scroll down past the logout button and click on New User Form Search (Basic). If you type in All Things Financial, you come up with 3 hits.
March 24th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
Oh bugger me. I just checked the site again, and it’s acting up. Go to http://www.uspto.gov and click on “Trademarks, file, search view.” And then on the next page, at the top, click on Search. And then scroll down past the logout button. Yeesh. Our tax dollars at work.
March 25th, 2006 at 2:00 am
That sucks… Appears it’s been in use for a financial newsletter since 1996. I’ll be sure to update my link to you as soon as you set up the new domain.
March 25th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
If they had a half decent marketing department over First National Corporation they would have purchased “All Things Financial” related domains a long time ago. It’s pretty obvious they don’t know much about the computer mediated communication. They should probably fire their PR people over there too. Their lack of tact with this issue is sure to have a nice back lash on the company.
March 27th, 2006 at 1:09 am
What’s in a name?