bluecollardistro.com — We got a legal threat this morning from FamilyPants.com because a user on one of our forums chose 'FamilyPants' as their username. They're upset because Google (and only Google) puts the user's profile on the first page of results for "familypants". I would think this is considered fair use. Link to the email posting on the offending forum.
Feb 2, 2006 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountFeb 2, 2006
This is ridiculous, how can a name on a forum affect a trademark?
Closed AccountFeb 2, 2006
question #1: does their trademark actually trademark the TERM, or a logo?
chiapetFeb 2, 2006
GOD I HOPE NOT (see my user name)
surfingFeb 2, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://I.was.going.to.say.the.same.thing.qos.google.com/">http://I.was.going.to.say.the.same.thing.qos.google.com/</a>
jesuscamposFeb 3, 2006
Man!!!! Someone beat me to it. Well, it only took around 120+ post before someone register familypants on digg.
tombombFeb 3, 2006
No, they cant. If they did, a lot of user names would be unavailable to use, and we would all use crap like xcyhg765.
matt_rubinFeb 4, 2006
who gives i've invaded at least 2253 trade marks :)