LEGAL HELP!

[Dusty!]

Im back from vacation and recieved a nice little email from the owner of "www.captainsofindustry.com" which is a marketing firm in boston. the letter pretty much said that we arent allowed to use the name anymore and that we need to take our site down in 5 days or we will be hearing from thier attornies.

what the shit do we do??!

[Brute666]

See what their attornies have to say. Do you have a DBA for your name in Philly? If not get one now!

[El Negro Magnifico!]

That fuckin' sucks, dude! Fuck! I hope this works out.

[Dusty!]

whats a dba?

[JGex]

dba = doing business as

That sucks, guys....

[Steve H]

oh dear, that really does suck,good luck captain.

[Dusty!]

how do i get a DBA?

[John A]

how do i get a DBA?

phone your county clerk on Tuesday. In my town, I just had to go down there and pay a small fee, like $30.00. I also had to get open up some kind of bank account (checking) under that DBA. Relatively painless stuff, then when their "attourneys" contact you, you can ask them to quit harrassing you or you'll get your suits after them.

[kozik]

1. Determine exact date you started doing buseiness as 'THE captains of industry.

2. I f the have TRADEMARKED 'Captains Of Industry'- well your fucked and need a new name. END OF STORY-

However-if not do this ASAP

1. Get your DBA. Bank Account etc.
2. Gather EVERY POSSIBLE dated document or poster that says

©The or Captaind of Industry.

3. APPLY for your trademark. It is a tedious process and costs like 2 grand.

If you can PROVE you have a 'prior' claim to an UNREGISTERED name you
have a chance at 'winning'. But it may end up costing 50-100 grand if they are well-heeled and want to be dicks.

If you have a PREVIOUSLY REGISTERED domain name compared to them you may be able to force them to buy you out.

It all depends on time...how long and with what aggression they have used the name as opposed to you. If they JUST started and don't have ads, products documents with the name and have NOT TRADEMARKED it YOU can SUE them.

Me..I'd just change the name. And make sure to DBA and COPYRIGHT and TRADEMARK it.

Also...if youor are not INCORPORATED (which you should be) they can attacj your personal assets if they win in court.

If they look like they have thier shit together and you lack the resources for a 2 year plus legal battle-CHANGE YOUR NAME.

NO ONE will 'care' about the 'UNDERDOG' you'll just get FUCKED.

[Dusty!]

i was under the impression that there was no way they could take our domain name away? and under this, cant we just maintain the domain name and change the company name to something like "the captains of industry - philadelphia pa" to show clearly that there is a huge distinction?

i refuse to give up the fuckin domain name, and i dont see how they can take it, if they wanted it they should have just registered it.

im up shit creek arent I? are any of you poster artists also big name copyright lawyers on the side?