So, I got a trademark takedown notice over the Interwebs this week. It was from the Foley Hoag LLP attorneys at law, on the behalf of WANT AD Publications, Inc.
They took issue with me hosting a page, on my personal website, that used the phrase “Want Advertiser.” The page (which I did remove, so you have no frame of reference, sorry) was a half-jokey list of items that I had for sale, or items that I was looking to buy. A personal classified sort of thing.
I haven’t updated that page in years. I thought it was neat at the time to put a little list on my personal website of things that I was selling or wanted to buy, but yeah, I don’t buy or sell anything that often, and if I do, there are better places for that kind of thing. So the page has been there, for ages, static and (for the most part) un-viewed. Then lawyers come around in their lawyery way, and ruffle feathers about taking it down.
It’s not really worth fighting for, so I went ahead and took the page down. Mostly I’m bemused and astounded by this, that these people would go to such an effort for a web page. Not just any web page, not some revenue-generating web site, not even anything that had advertisements. A single, short web page, on a personal web site, that hasn’t been updated in years. They spend money and time fighting that.
I’m not sure if it’s kosher for me to post the PDF they sent. They slap on “CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION” notices on emails they send out, but I never agreed to receive confidential information. So, can I post the content of their nastygram, here in public?
Yeah, I’m not afraid:
From: Weinstein, Charles <CEW@foleyhoag.com> Subject: WANT AD Publications Inc./Metastatic.org–Infringement of Registered Trademark THE WANT ADVERTISER Date: August 16, 2007 07:33:33 AM PDT To: Casey Marshall CC: Smith, Jim <JAS@foleyhoag.com> 1 attachment, 113.0 KB
Casey S. Marshall.pdf (113.0KB)Please see the attached PDF file.
Charles E Weinstein, Esq.
Foley Hoag LLP
Seaport World Trade Center West
155 Seaport Boulevard
Boston MA 02210
617.832.1238 (phone)
617.832.7000 (fax)
cweinste@foleyhoag.comUnited States Treasury Regulations require us to disclose the following: Any tax advice included in this document and its attachments was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code.
This email message and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify Foley Hoag LLP immediately — by replying to this message or by sending an email to postmaster@foleyhoag.com — and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments without reading or disclosing their contents. Thank you.
For more information about Foley Hoag LLP, please visit us at www.foleyhoag.com.
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Andy Burns | 18-Aug-07 at 2:42 pm | Permalink
perhaps you should point them towards
http://web.archive.org/web/20051221100647/metastatic.org/text/want-ads.html
csm | 18-Aug-07 at 3:52 pm | Permalink
I think you just did
ozten | 31-Aug-07 at 1:52 pm | Permalink
Hi Casey,
Oh man. I am reading a book “Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages” and it talks about lawyers getting their start. When writing was an advanced technology, you had this class of proto-knowledge worker that the rich would pay to write down a conversation or a business transaction.
Now that we can all write for ourselves, I think the profession of being a lawyer has fallen to terrible lows in order to preserve itself.
Some are henchmen without unique thought or moral fiber, others parse language to subvert the law and lie.
Today computer programmers occupy an analogous position as our ancient lawyer’s once did, knowing a high technology and paid to “just write it down”. What will we have devolved into in 1000 years?
csm | 31-Aug-07 at 3:51 pm | Permalink
I went to see Alex Wright’s seminar he gave at the Long Now Foundation, and it was a nice slice through history. I’ve been meaning to pick up “Glut”.