
A Conference Stole My Identity - jballanc
http://futurestack.com/blog/2014/07/23/a-little-backstory/
======
TheMagicHorsey
This guy completely misunderstands how intellectual property around brands and
names works.

Copyright doesn't protect your brand name. Trademark does.

Trademark doesn't give you blanket protection that stops every other person on
earth from using your trademarked term. What you get instead is a highly
context-specific protection. A trademark protects the use of your trademarked
term in a specific service/goods segment. When you see trademarks like Ford,
Apple, or Google, that seem to have unbelievably wide protection for their
trademarks, that seems to span across wide spans of the market, that is
because their brands are very well known, and because the use of their brand
by a third-party could create a confusion in the consumer as to the origin of
the goods/services.

If there is no confusion in the minds of consumers as to the origin of a
message/good/service, then the use of a trademarked term is not restricted.

In this case, this guy is virtually unknown. Not a single person thinks he is
the one running this conference. Its clear the conference is being run by
other people.

You cannot claim an absolute property right to a silly sequence of words just
because you think you said it first, and because you made a domain.

Yes, the domain and the twitter handle should be yours by right of first
occupation. But nothing more.

edit: changed "absolute nobody" to "virtually unknown" to address rudeness
concerns.

edit: with regards to the charge of rudeness leveled against the conference
organizers: In a world literally flooded by brands and names, name collision
is not rudeness, it is almost inevitable.

~~~
erikschoster
"In this case, this guy is an absolute nobody."

He's an artist and musician who seems to be actively performing in the
chiptune / computer music worlds.

Even if he wasn't, there's no need for name calling.

~~~
27182818284
I think in any other context, that would be insulting, but since the poster
was specifically talking about how popularity affects trademarks with respect
to _extremely_ popular brands like Google, Apple, etc, it is fine. I had to
re-read his message after seeing yours because my first thought was, "What
insult is this person talking about?"

~~~
esquivalience
Agreed. I think it's a bit of a stretch to claim "pre-eminence"!

~~~
aroch
Pretty sure that was said sardonically

~~~
futurestack
Indeed it was.

------
tedchs
Or maybe, you know, nobody knew about this guy's sense of the string
"futurestack" and New Relic's marketing people brainstormed for a good
conference name (increasingly difficult) and just went with it. You do not
have exclusive, global, all-contextual moral rights to the string you happened
to choose as your usual internet handle.

~~~
Fuxy
No but suspending someones twitter handle because you accidentally named a
conference after their online identity is still a dick move.

How hard is it to goggle something before you name a conference after it.

~~~
unreal37
He said he began to impersonate them to try to gain some of their followers...
That got him suspended.

As someone who is involved in naming things for big companies sometimes, it's
actually quite hard to find a name that isn't registered as a trademark.

I don't like the idea of someone claiming all uses of a name forever. Very few
companies (McDonalds, Disney, Coca-Cola) get that right over all uses of their
name, and it should remain very few.

~~~
alasdair_
Even McDonald's doesn't "get that right over all uses of their name" \- there
are plenty of shops in Scotland called McDonalds. (In particular, there is a
Hallmark-like shop in Glasgow that has the same name as, and is on the same
street as, a McDonalds hamburgers).

~~~
unreal37
In Scotland, I can see that being a difficult case for McDonald's to win. But
then in the U.S., they win a case against a guy trying to market "MacDimSum",
as they claim consumers would be confused that its a McDonald's product. They
won that case, so food products cannot have the prefix Mc or Mac. Trademark
can sometimes grant vast powers to famous brands.

~~~
frobozz
Macsween and McVities are both major food brands.

------
socrates1998
A lot of people are talking about how this guys doesn't understand Trademark
law. Well, no shit.

This conference stole his identity. He isn't claiming he has a right to the
name.

What the conference did was legal, but still not right.

All too typical of people trying to build themselves up in status.

They knew about this guy and they then they checked to see if he trademarked
it. They knew they were legally okay, so they went ahead with it.

Legal move, but a dick move.

~~~
x1798DE
I don't really see it as a dick move. They're not appropriating this guy's
brand or pretending to be him. The worst that's happened so far is he got a
few tweets not meant for him. He's not going to lose any business or
reputation because a conference has the same name as him. He _already owns_
the .com domain and has the twitter account for the name. I could see if they
tried to make some move to steal his domain by trying to vulture a lapsed
renewal, or sent him a C&D for use of the name, but basically their big crime
was to have chosen the same name for their developer conference as he uses as
his internet handle, and _maybe_ they knew there was some guy who uses the
same name.

Name collisions are going to happen. There are a limited number of cool names.
If it's not causing any real problems, then I don't see the big issue.

That said, if I accidentally caused some guy to get a bunch of tweets not
meant for him, I'd probably apologize about it privately (obviously it wasn't
intentional). I definitely would try to talk to the guy before trying to get
his twitter account suspended.

~~~
socrates1998
Let me ask you this.

Would you be annoyed/angry if someone took your twitter handle and primary
domain name and started using it as their own? If though you are very active
and controlled that name for a number of years?

Almost everyone would be angry (or very annoyed). There are a limitless number
of names out there.

Here is why it is a dick move.

1) They almost for sure knew about him and his name.

2) They didn't contact him or offer to buy out his domain/handle.

3) They went ahead with it anyways probably because he hadn't trademarked it.

Look it's not the end of the world, it's just a pretty shitty thing to do to a
person.

~~~
x1798DE
If someone tried to take over my twitter handle and domain name, I would be
upset.

If someone used the same name that I am using for an internet nickname for
myself (a person) for their company, I would essentially not care. At worst
I'd be annoyed at an increased number of "@" mentions that comes from there
being namespace collision.

And, frankly, this happens _all the time_. There is a ton of name collision
out there happening as names which are sufficiently unique for a local context
get moved online, which is a global context. Generally, when people find out
there's been some name confusion, they are mildly annoyed by the inconvenience
of people "@" messaging the wrong account, but not indignant that someone
dared use the same name as them. Mostly when I see this happen I see people
getting upset about the people "@" messaging them not checking the name more
carefully, not at the company for picking the name. That is a pretty strong
indicator, to me, that most people wouldn't consider this a "dick move".

------
jayvanguard
This is a weird case. I can see why he is pissed but you don't have global
rights to your name let alone your internet handle. Ask anyone who suddenly
finds themselves with the same name as a famous person. Google-slapped!

Should the company have considered this? It is a toss up. If a lone person
using an internet handle is the bar to avoid any naming conflicts you're
pretty much screwed in coming up with a name for anything.

~~~
spinlock
So, you're saying this guy's the new Michael Bolton?

------
mcguire
My name is Tommy McGuire. I am unaffiliated with Maj. Thomas B. McGuire[1] or
McGuire Air Force Base[2] or any of the other people on the internet who may
or may not use the name "mcguire" or "T. McGuire" or anything similar.

Tl;dr: This is the world's smallest violin, playing "My heart bleeds for
thee."

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_McGuire](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_McGuire)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGuire_Air_Force_Base](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGuire_Air_Force_Base)

------
stefanve
To me the most bizarre (and possible only) thing is that twitter suspended
your twitter account instead of second coming of FS

~~~
Xorlev
Once he used the logo he was in the wrong.

~~~
donretag
Parody is allowed under US law.

~~~
ubernostrum
Sure, parody is allowed under US law. But is it allowed under Twitter's terms
of service? And to what extent? Because when you play in their sandbox, you
play by their rules.

------
morgo
I also use the same handle as a conference. Me: @morgo Conference: @morgo_nz

I impersonated them with flight of the conchords jokes in 2011:
[https://twitter.com/morgo/status/128488872165384195](https://twitter.com/morgo/status/128488872165384195)

Immature on my part. Very happy not to have my twitter account suspended :)

------
logfromblammo
You don't actually have to register your trademark with anyone. You just have
to use it and defend it like a badger sow in front of a litter of pups.

Nowadays, that effectively means putting an IP lawyer on retainer and
subscribing to a brand monitoring service. Any one of those worth their salt
will advise you to register your trademark, simply because it makes their job
easier if anyone attempts to infringe.

The net result is that it is only worthwhile to pay for the maintenance and
upkeep of a trademark if it is actually making you money. Individuals and
smaller entities should instead rely primarily upon their own names, to build
up reputations and personal relationships using trade dress that can more
easily be enforced by the secretary of state's business records and management
staff. Impersonation of someone else's actual identity can prompt criminal
prosecution, rather than a more difficult civil suit.

This guy at futurestack does not quite grasp the legal concepts involved.
Based on actual usage, he could make a case for a trademark over journals and
periodical publications. If he found a newspaper or magazine calling itself
futurestack, he could force them to change their name. As we know from
frequent patent industry complaining, adding "on the Internet" to a thing does
not make it a different thing. Blogs are categorically the same as newspapers.

A trade conference is not a newspaper. It does not matter who attends. A trade
conference for plumbers and steamfitters is categorically the same as a
conference for web developers, or one for science fiction authors, or one for
sasquatch hunters. There is no confusion between the actual things. No one
arrives at the conference and says, "Hey, where are all the blog posts?". And
no one visits the blog and says, "So where do I pick up my name tag?".

So the instant he decided to impersonate the conference with his own web
presence, he was infringing upon _their_ trademark. Bad idea. They have more
money and more supporters. He needs to back away immediately, apologize, and
attempt to create some measure of cooperation. It couldn't hurt to add a
disambiguation header to the blog that redirects accidental conference-related
visitors to where they actually wanted to go.

------
mgcross
If I were in this situation, I'd probably try to sell them the domain for a
fair price (>$10k), go on vacation with part of the money, and use the rest
for a rebrand when I got home.

~~~
dreamfactory2
He needs to apply for trademark and let them come to his lawyer with precisely
that kind of offer

------
damon_c
It's not easy to stop an identity campaign once it's been started but it
really seems like the conference people at least tried a little bit with their
fs14 and "{future}stack" branding.

------
trjordan
"Lew Cirne" anagrams to "New Relic".

"Future Stack" anagrams to "Astute Fucker".

I think the folks at New Relic just have a thing for anagrams.

------
knd775
I really hope his account gets unsuspended... That is rather ridiculous. No
one checked his account age before dropping the ban hammer?

------
kordless
It's hysterical that the Pirate Hoover Shirt™ is at the top of the post and
then at the bottom he was angry because someone offered him the shirt to try
to make him feel better. I mean, what could be better than being offered The
Best T-Shirt Ever Designed? (I was in the room when we came up with the shirt
design, and I can tell you it was a happy time.)

Sadly, that just pissed him off even more, which is a sign something is wrong
somewhere with something.

> a narcissist [1]

[1]
[http://futurestack.com/static/about/](http://futurestack.com/static/about/)

~~~
Anderkent
Really hard to tell whether you're being sarcastic in:

> what could be better than being offered The Best T-Shirt Ever Designed? (I
> was in the room when we came up with the shirt design, and I can tell you it
> was a happy time.

I'd guess you were, but the parenthesed mention seems to go against that?

~~~
kordless
No sarcasm. The Loggly Hoover shirts are loved by their owners. I'm biased
because I invented Hoover (did not draw him however) but still, people love
beavers and the funny shirts we did. I find it ironic that the guy was
offended by being offered a shirt that basically takes nothing seriously and
pretty much brings a smile to people's faces, and then puts it a the top of a
rant post.

BTW, I do appreciate his pain, I've had people steal my designs (and name to
boot) before and it sucks.

------
null_ptr
Good unique handles are only getting scarcer as the internet grows older. I
wonder what people will do 20 years from now.

~~~
richmarr
Use different websites.

------
Glyptodon
What sucks is that eventually lots of people will assume he stole the name he
uses from the conference...

------
Benjamin_Dobell
So it turns out there are a lot of people in the world. Name clashes happen...
all.. the... time!

If you're that pedantic about a pseudonym, get a trademark.

A mate of mine just 2 days ago had a 12 year old bug him on twitter to sell
his twitter handle for $12. The kid has a terrible YouTube channel under the
same name with plenty of videos 'tea-bagging' people in computer games and
just generally being incredibly obnoxious. You know what my friend did?...
laughed.

------
ErikRogneby
I wonder if @mentions on twitter meet the "substantial likelihood of
confusion" test for trademark infringement?

------
DarkIye
Your hasty "this is a rant" cover does nothing to compensate for the fact that
nobody cares.

------
blackdogie
Unless you have a relevant trademark, there isn't really much you can do here.

He doesn't really have any claim to exclusive rights to this particular mix of
words.

~~~
regularfry
You don't need to formally lodge a trademark application to gain protection.
At least, not under UK law. I imagine it's similar in the US.

Not only that, but he can clearly demonstrate both confusion and priority, in
the same field. I don't think it's particularly clear-cut which way a judge
would go.

~~~
jamesbritt
In the US there is common-law trademark protection

[http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/common.html](http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/common.html)

It is not as strong as have a federally-registered trademark.

But, as others have pointed out, the problem is in showing the likelihood of
confusion.

It's _possible_ that this musician could prove this, but I believe it can be
quite expensive, and there's no assurance of winning.

My gut feeling is the the idea of confusion is not so clear cut. If you apply
for a trademark you need to specify the specific field of application, and
there are quite a few and remarkably segmented. Even having a registered
trademark as a musician may not stop another from getting a trademark on a
tech conference.

His best bet might have been to try to ride the wave of inadvertent attention,
promoting his stuff to people on Twitter who followed him by mistake.

Perhaps some number of them would have become fans/customers.

But I can understand the anger when you think someone is stepping on your
identity.

~~~
regularfry
He calls himself "an independent artist and programmer." If he's been paid for
the latter under the futurestack name...

~~~
jamesbritt
Ah, OK. Fair point.

------
codemaster3000
Why was this removed from the front page?

~~~
dogecoinbase
If I had to guess, the same reason New Relic was able to get him quickly and
easily suspended from Twitter without any contact from Twitter to him (which
is standard) -- Bay Area tech friends.

------
Practicality
Have we considered that the reason for the account suspension is likely
because the logo is FU?

------
peterkelly
and that's... why you _always_ register a trademark

~~~
pyre
Even if you register a trademark, it doesn't give a claim to the name that
blankets the entire world, and every industry out there.

------
newrelic
You don't own the name unless you file for a trademark, feel free to sue if
you think otherwise.

~~~
jdong
I wonder if this is the official stance of new relic.

~~~
jasonlotito
Why would you wonder this?

------
simi_
Account suspended – lol.

[https://twitter.com/futurestack](https://twitter.com/futurestack)

