Man Bets Business on Seahawks/49ers Matchup

[AROS]

http://www.komonews.com/news/eco/Facing ... 83261.html

 

[Seahawks Guy]

There's something wrong with our legal system when businesses like this are able to be sued.

 

[Hawknballs]

thats pretty much awesome.

No pressure hawks. JUST THIS MAN'S LIFE.

 

[Hawknballs]

There's something wrong with our legal system when businesses like this are able to be sued.

If his name was actually Craig, maybe i would half-agree. His name is mike though. So the only point in calling his business craigstruck is to ping off the popularity of craigslist, with a delivery service directly related to craigslist.

I'm a professional aritst. If i start a company called Disney Artist there will probably be legal issues.

Also, they did send him a cease and desist request. So really he could have just changed his business name and they wouldn't have cared. It's not like they sued him right out of the gate, unreasonably.

 

[HansGruber]

Seems like a weak case by craigslist. The primary definition of trademark infringement, as I understand it, is that the two businesses sell similar products and by infringing the trademark, one company is able to steal business from the other or damage the other business financially.

This guy would win in trial. But like he says, it's an issue of financing. And that's too bad.

Craigslist can suck it

 

[lobohawk]

My only issue here is that he's leveraging Craigslist's name recognition and business model together (name + connecting people). He was counting on the name recognition to "click" with consumers and solve the problem of defining what his business did.

If he called it find-truck.com and did the same business, it wouldn't have been a problem. It's just in that case, he would have to spend more effort ($$$) getting consumers to understand the business.

 

[Hawknballs]

if i started a business called seahawksride.com and gave people rides to seahawks games i would be shut down in a heart beat, its no different.

If i simply called myself gamedayride.com and did the same thing it would probably be fine.

Probably.

 

[DavidSeven]

I guess that's kind of fun, but is he really "betting" anything? The article itself says he has no money to defend the suit. Thus, he has absolutely nothing to lose. Why would Craigslist even think about taking this bet? .

 

[Seahawks Guy]

Seems like a weak case by craigslist. The primary definition of trademark infringement, as I understand it, is that the two businesses sell similar products and by infringing the trademark, one company is able to steal business from the other or damage the other business financially.

This guy would win in trial. But like he says, it's an issue of financing. And that's too bad.

Craigslist can suck it

Exactly. It's not like he's taking money away from Craigslist.

And where does the legal system draw the line? There's a trailer company called "Wells Cargo" that isn't in trouble with Wells Fargo. There's a website called "Safeshopping" that isn't in any trouble with Safeway...both have the word "safe" in it just like these companies both have the word "Craigs" in it. K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Sav-Mart, etc...all have the word Mart in it. Seriously, if the name of one business isn't the same as another, it should be okay to use.

Also, as this guy pointed out, it's just a battle to see who has the most resources, so even if Craigslist doesn't have a case, they will just run him dry til he quits. Really sad that our legal system allows the richest to win.

 

[Anonymous]

Two things:

1.) It is not competing business with Craigslist, does not provide the same service(s), and (technically) does not use the same name. A crafty attorney could work around this easily. The proper name Craig could easily be the name of a friend of his from high school who was influential in his life. The burden of proof is on Craigslist is to differentiate this guys moving business as being just for Craigslist customers. If he got paid even one time to move something for someone that was not purchased on Craigslist, exclusivity is void.

2.) It can be argued that this individual actually helps bring awareness to those who might never have utilized the services of Craigslist. It is free advertising for them.

As an attorney friend of mine has said to me about lawsuits; the goal of a lawsuit should be about the money, and not about anything else. Those who sue simply because of principal, or ticky-tacky crap like this, are doing so to satisfy their own control-freak agenda, and clog the courts with frivolous crap. This guy has no money, and there is no basis to use this case to set a precedent. This is clearly a case of an attorney for Craigslist simply doing something to justify his slice of the payroll, and nothing more.

Big company sues little guy for nothing but trying to help out their customers? Help us out, and we will punish you for it. Great company mission statement.

 

[hgwellz12]

Paul Allen needs to get one of his trademark attorneys on this case STAT.
GO HAWKS!

 

[Jazzhawk]

if i started a business called seahawksride.com and gave people rides to seahawks games i would be shut down in a heart beat, its no different.

If i simply called myself gamedayride.com and did the same thing it would probably be fine.

Probably.

So, should Seahawks.net give up everything if the Seahawks or NFL decide to file a cease and desist order against us? Maybe we could just change our name to ProfootballintheEmeraldCity.net and everyone would understand.

 

[HansGruber]

Something we're all missing -

Trademark cases get thrown out if both parties provide wildly different services. I don't remember the specifics, but one of my colleagues was sued for trademark infringement because he named a research company the same as some vaccuum manufacturer or something like that. He showed up to court with his attorney and the case was dismissed apparently. Like I said, I don't remember all the specifics, but he told me the case was dismissed at the first hearing because the judge said it is not trademark infringement when the two companies serve different customers. For example, you could have a pizza joint named "Great Slices" and a knife manufacturer named "Great Slices" and it does not qualify as trademark infringement because neither can steal customers from the other, which is the definition of trademark infringement.

This guy just needs to pony up a couple grand to hire a hungry new attorney and show up at court to get the case dismissed. It wouldn't go further than that. And if his case was dismissed, he could ask the court to force Craigslist to pay his attorney fees, and they would.

 

[HansGruber]

Which is a long-drawn-out way of saying, I think he's just using this for publicity and free advertising.