Intellectual Property Theft

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sgreanbeans

Treeaculterologist
Joined
May 4, 2001
Messages
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Location
iowa
I think that is the right word, but yall know what I mean. It was just brought to my attention, that a local kid, start up, has stolen my verbiage off my site and put it on his, I checked and yep, he did, blatantly obvious, as I wrote the content on my site, all but one little part that I had permission to use from another service. Not sure how to handle this one, seems like he has good intent, has enough thought to put good info up, but to take it with out asking, that makes me mad. Last ones to do this, I just sent the attorney after them, had one site shut down and made another change their slogan (they were using mine). Have another that uses a website name almost exactly like mine, lawyer said leave that one alone, as it is real obvious that he is nothing like me,a joke, that site is almost comical, one of those $50.00 GoDaddy deals, so I am not worried about him. But this kid, that bugs me, if he is trying to be a Jedi, I will help him, but to just take info, that is very obvious where he got it from, that tells me that he is learning the way of the Sith. Should I extend a hand or smash?
 
Maybe he dont know its wrong or maybe he dont care. I would make him change it or have the attorney take him out. Why does everyone want to be you? You must be all that and a bag of chips.
 
I think that is the right word, but yall know what I mean. It was just brought to my attention, that a local kid, start up, has stolen my verbiage off my site and put it on his, I checked and yep, he did, blatantly obvious, as I wrote the content on my site, all but one little part that I had permission to use from another service. Not sure how to handle this one, seems like he has good intent, has enough thought to put good info up, but to take it with out asking, that makes me mad. Last ones to do this, I just sent the attorney after them, had one site shut down and made another change their slogan (they were using mine). Have another that uses a website name almost exactly like mine, lawyer said leave that one alone, as it is real obvious that he is nothing like me,a joke, that site is almost comical, one of those $50.00 GoDaddy deals, so I am not worried about him. But this kid, that bugs me, if he is trying to be a Jedi, I will help him, but to just take info, that is very obvious where he got it from, that tells me that he is learning the way of the Sith. Should I extend a hand or smash?

write a letter threatening him with suit see if he changes it... if not then you have to ask yourself if its worth spending the money for the fight. I dont think you could actually recover anything money wise, so it would be money your tossing out the window on principal. Maybe you could get Dan to come by and do the banana in the tale pipe trick to him (actually I think it was spray insulation).

Another avenue if your gonna go all the way is finding out the hosting company and send them a letter. You could have the info on your site copywrite protected cheap I believe. You could do that then send a letter to his hosting company telling them that a customer if theirs is violating copywrite laws and they will take his site down until its fixed. Well at least thats how it is suppose to work.

url of his site?
 
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Maybe he dont know its wrong or maybe he dont care. I would make him change it or have the attorney take him out. Why does everyone want to be you? You must be all that and a bag of chips.

Hahaha. I have a mini me. Its hilarious actually.. even has the same first name. Unfortunately for him, he really does appear to be "living the dream". OMG the mid 20's were rough!! Poor bastard. Lol.
 
...

getting pissed is a waste of energy and of focus....
met and talk with him.... then take some time to reflect on what he said and how he said it.... then decide....
 
Well, knowing your situation, I would just let it slide and forget about it. If you planned on staying in that town and working maybe. But you're moving on to greener pastures right?
 
Well, knowing your situation, I would just let it slide and forget about it. If you planned on staying in that town and working maybe. But you're moving on to greener pastures right?

Good idea if you moving teach this kid the way of the jedi and let him loose.
 
Maybe he dont know its wrong or maybe he dont care. I would make him change it or have the attorney take him out. Why does everyone want to be you? You must be all that and a bag of chips.

LOL, I DONT KNOW!! I am not all that! Around here, compared to them,I suppose I am, but compared to many of you and others I know in SoCal, I aint shyat! Kills me that they cant come up with there own marketing, constantly stealing my stuff. Around here, I think it has gone on for years and no one knew that they could do anything about it. I have the same Trade Mark Attorney as John Deere, he's guuuuuuuud! So I have everything protected, even have the TM symbol on stuff, but they still do it. The phone books don't care either, they have that little clause that they are "not responsible for content". So you have guys using the ISA logos and other peoples slogans and logos in there Adds. One guy uses my In-Laws old Company name that they still own, list's it in the phone book as if it is a real service,its not, but with the same number as his other adds with other names. That is called collusion, I believe and is illegal as well. I don't care about that guy either. But it kills me how far these guys will go to get calls!, how bout doing good work! Don't get me wrong, I market the hell out of myself, but do it honestly, and have created about 90% of the content on all my stuff myself, had a little help with some things, but very little, like the art work, I don't have the software.
I also have a mini me!, known crack head, people call me from time to time to tell me, clients, when he goes door to door! He doesn't have much luck from what I understand. I guess they see that I usually have tons of work, that why they do it. Hell I dunno!
 
I would at least bring it to his attention that you are aware of what's up. see how he responds and go from there. just a thought
 
Scott, I have had two actually work using my name here. They had both previously worked for me... One only for a day. I shut them down on that and they changed their name to something very similar. Total rip offs. They even tried to defraud a church and pass off one of my old insurance certificates as their own and tried to work on the church property under my name. There are two companies in my town that have named their CO's something very similar to mine. They are their own worst enemies in the end. I searched one of the companies (the one who tried to defraud the church) on the web and this dude has amassed quite a rep for himself in the past couple of years. Unresolved complaints and poor reviews all over town. All you can hope for is a better educated, diligent customer to sniff out the wannabes.

I have worked under the same name since 2001 with zero complaints and that is a documented fact. I hope and pray that clients check my references and credentials before hiring.
 
I thought you were moving on to another job in another state. If thats the case, who cares about someone moving in on your biz? You're leaving, no? :msp_confused:
 
I am moving, but I have the biz sold, so, I dunno! I guess that's another reason to throw it up here. I realize that when I am gone it doesn't matter...........to me, but I want the guy buying it to succeed, would hate to see what I built, wasted. Soon it will be his fight, I just kinda feel that I need to still protect it, while I am still here, hell,something could happen that would not allow me to leave! GOD I HOPE NOT! But it could happen. Plus, it just turns my stomach when people steal what is not theirs. I HATE THIEF'S! Not that anybody likes them,lol!

Think I will get with new guy, bring him up to speed, let him decide how to handle it, will be a good learning experience for him, while I am still here to help
 
I'm sure it's going to be tough to leave it all behind, regardless of what happens to the company you built. Probably is the good idea to get the new owner up to date.
 
Intellectual property????

Good luck with that, did you copyright/patent everything? & even if you did....good luck with that, you would first have to prove it & then show it was done maliciously with intent to do you financial harm or harm of some sort, if you did suffer damages then you may have a case?

I had same happen & was told that this is america & you really cant enforce words/verbage unless its a legal Biz name, legal document, a copyrighted catch phrase & other business related slogans............but you better have protected such legally!!! or anyone can use it, on top of that intellectual property suits are very expensive & most Atty`s shy away from them, only a struggling lawyer with solid prima facia would even take your case & then hesitantly.

My Attorney told me to just continue as I were & to let the general public know through commercial ad, so I took out an ad in the local newspaper & literally stated that another business has been using my name, catch slogans & other biz related types of advertising & not to be fooled by this business.....after I did this... my biz doubled most customers told me that if someone needed to copy me then I must be doing something right & I am the person that they want, 2 weeks later that biz had no more ads & I have never seen/heard anything about them





LXT............
 
About a month ago I discovered a similar problem, a local grinder (who I sometimes use as a sub) had shown my webpage to his webbuilder, and the webbuilder copied verbatim sections of three of my self written content pages.

My biggest problem with it was that I didn't/don't want any duplicated material from my page out there, because my page could be penalized in the search engines.

A short conversation about the problem handled it quickly, his webbuilder rang my phone a few days later to let me know that my copyrighted material on his web page had been changed. (Not much, but enough....)

Just mention to him that he's using your copyrighted material, and to change it now, so as to save both of you the trouble of dealing with the issue through "official" channels. If he refuses, then worry about what you can legally do. I doubt he'll refuse.
 
Intellectual property????

Good luck with that, did you copyright/patent everything? & even if you did....good luck with that, you would first have to prove it & then show it was done maliciously with intent to do you financial harm or harm of some sort, if you did suffer damages then you may have a case?

I had same happen & was told that this is america & you really cant enforce words/verbage unless its a legal Biz name, legal document, a copyrighted catch phrase & other business related slogans............but you better have protected such legally!!! or anyone can use it, on top of that intellectual property suits are very expensive & most Atty`s shy away from them, only a struggling lawyer with solid prima facia would even take your case & then hesitantly.

My Attorney told me to just continue as I were & to let the general public know through commercial ad, so I took out an ad in the local newspaper & literally stated that another business has been using my name, catch slogans & other biz related types of advertising & not to be fooled by this business.....after I did this... my biz doubled most customers told me that if someone needed to copy me then I must be doing something right & I am the person that they want, 2 weeks later that biz had no more ads & I have never seen/heard anything about them

LXT............

I hear ya, thats the thing, I have one of the best, (I know, I know everyone says that!) he does John Deere,Alcoa, Caterpillar, Oscar Meyer, etc.His dad did the whole green yellow thing. He is free, as he is a rich a s s Marine looking out. I paid th court cost and filing fees and all that, but he doesn't charge me for his time, I could only guess what he charges per hour with clients like that, has the baddest downtown river view condo/office EVER!
I love just sitting in the waiting room, puts a different perspective on this dive that I call home! Cool picture window, like 10ft tall and 20ft wide, anyways!, it is all protected, but your right, it will still happen. I think the letter from him usually takes care of it, no one wants to push it or has the cash to get a attorney to match him. I have thought about running the tv add like that, letting the GP know that...........I am me! I can see how people would take it that way, how long did you run it?
 
I believe a "cease and desist" letter from your lawyer would have him change his site immediately.

The thought of having to hire a lawyer, costing him $$ would most likely have him change his sites wording. - A lot easier than worring about going to court.
 
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