Sounds like big business trying bullying tactics. He should stand his ground. UFO Geek mentions he had a run in with Radio Shack. When Radio Shack wanted to open stores in the UK they found some guy had already registered the name for his small highstreet electrical shop. Radio Shack bullied and threatened, eventually taking him to court. Radio Shack (USA)lost the case and instead decided to offer the guy a large lump sum. He was so pissed off he refused and Radio Shack had to operate in the UK under the Tandy tradename! Power to the little guy...
I don't think UFO Magazine is really big business.
I am not taking sides on this one since I like both parties.
The thing that I found interesting is that so many people can copyright the word ufo, in reference to different items. UFO magazines seems to have it copyrighted in generic terms, but there are also copyrights of the word referring to a shoe and other odd uses.
Hi Lesley... I hope you don't mind me adding the following. Many have been asking me why, and if I was coattailing on them. I wanted to provide a better explanation than is in my original post. Thanks - Mike
1) First remember this… Mr. Birnes’ publication is titled “UFO”. It is a “UFO” magazine. They have cleverly placed the word magazine under their registered trademark term “UFO”, making it appear as if the title is “UFO Magazine”, which it is not. Note the circle R to the right of the word UFO. The word magazine is then placed under the word UFO and the circle R… which is done for a reason, and they know why. Earlier versions of their cover were completely different. Just the title “UFO” was shown, with a tag line under that. They then changed this… but never officially trademarked the term “UFO Magazine”, because they knew the title was still really, “UFO”, their official trademarked term. That is why they can not declare a foul if the term “UFO Magazine” is used elsewhere. Don’t let them fool you. I have been through this before with a much, much, much bigger company than them, and the trademark board agreed with me. I can and do now call my website “UFO Magazine”, an electronically published magazine. There is more to come, which I will not discuss at this time… but I will write about it soon.
2) No coattail riding because a) See number 1 above and; b) I am not a business, I make no money, I ask for no money, I’ve been blogging for 6 years and have never asked for a cent. How would I gain from them on my UFO and paranormal hobby website? I already brought a couple thousand daily readers over from my other blog, to this one when I shut that one down earlier this month. Again, what would I gain? And as far as damaging them, this is just not happening or will it ever. My hobby site is no threat to Birnes’ printed publication, no matter what he may whine about. (And he knows it!) Believe it or not, I did not know of a “UFO Magazine” before I did this. The domain name ufomagazine.net was open and someone told me about it. I thought it would be cool to have that… so I bought it. Mr. Birnes told me I must have been living in a cave not to know of his magazine. I guess he finds it hard to believe that there are some out there who do not… and I was one of them. I only found out about them when I purchased the encyclopedia they sponsored and there was a forward about the magazine. That was after I bought the domain name.
3) I tried to explain some of this to Mr. Birnes on the phone when I told him I was doing a story about the letter that was sent to me. I invited him, in a message, to call me with a comment for the story, and he did. But he was full of emotion, and the conversation was not the best. He was speaking without even having seen the letter, and he was making assumptions that were not true, and he was just going off on me… Not very professional, in my opinion.
The problem being (and I know this because my husband has two patents) is that if you feel your trademark is being infringed on you are obligated to defend it, or lose rights to it. It also clearly states in the trademark - MAGAZINE PUBLISHED PERIODICALLY DEALING WITH UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS AND RELATED PHENOMENA
which is why they would be obligated to defend if someone was using ufo with the word magazine. I suppose it is possible that I am wrong about that, but judging by patent law that seems right to me.
Bill Birnes company has also filed for "UFO" as a trademark for - "Entertainment in the nature of a television series and motion picture film series." and "Computer software for games." I wonder if they are going to try to stop all the movies and television series that use the word "UFO" and any software games that use it?
Birnes also made similar threats to FATE magazine earlier this year for publishing and selling books with the word "UFO" in the titles in their magazine. I kid you not. This seems to be Birnes' new M.O. -- bully the "competition" with bogus claims of trademark and copyright infringement. Don't give in.
6 comments:
Sounds like big business trying bullying tactics. He should stand his ground. UFO Geek mentions he had a run in with Radio Shack. When Radio Shack wanted to open stores in the UK they found some guy had already registered the name for his small highstreet electrical shop. Radio Shack bullied and threatened, eventually taking him to court. Radio Shack (USA)lost the case and instead decided to offer the guy a large lump sum. He was so pissed off he refused and Radio Shack had to operate in the UK under the Tandy tradename! Power to the little guy...
I don't think UFO Magazine is really big business.
I am not taking sides on this one since I like both parties.
The thing that I found interesting is that so many people can copyright the word ufo, in reference to different items. UFO magazines seems to have it copyrighted in generic terms, but there are also copyrights of the word referring to a shoe and other odd uses.
Hi Lesley... I hope you don't mind me adding the following. Many have been asking me why, and if I was coattailing on them. I wanted to provide a better explanation than is in my original post. Thanks - Mike
1) First remember this… Mr. Birnes’ publication is titled “UFO”. It is a “UFO” magazine. They have cleverly placed the word magazine under their registered trademark term “UFO”, making it appear as if the title is “UFO Magazine”, which it is not. Note the circle R to the right of the word UFO. The word magazine is then placed under the word UFO and the circle R… which is done for a reason, and they know why.
Earlier versions of their cover were completely different. Just the title “UFO” was shown, with a tag line under that. They then changed this… but never officially trademarked the term “UFO Magazine”, because they knew the title was still really, “UFO”, their official trademarked term. That is why they can not declare a foul if the term “UFO Magazine” is used elsewhere. Don’t let them fool you. I have been through this before with a much, much, much bigger company than them, and the trademark board agreed with me. I can and do now call my website “UFO Magazine”, an electronically published magazine. There is more to come, which I will not discuss at this time… but I will write about it soon.
2) No coattail riding because a) See number 1 above and; b) I am not a business, I make no money, I ask for no money, I’ve been blogging for 6 years and have never asked for a cent. How would I gain from them on my UFO and paranormal hobby website? I already brought a couple thousand daily readers over from my other blog, to this one when I shut that one down earlier this month. Again, what would I gain? And as far as damaging them, this is just not happening or will it ever. My hobby site is no threat to Birnes’ printed publication, no matter what he may whine about. (And he knows it!)
Believe it or not, I did not know of a “UFO Magazine” before I did this. The domain name ufomagazine.net was open and someone told me about it. I thought it would be cool to have that… so I bought it. Mr. Birnes told me I must have been living in a cave not to know of his magazine. I guess he finds it hard to believe that there are some out there who do not… and I was one of them. I only found out about them when I purchased the encyclopedia they sponsored and there was a forward about the magazine. That was after I bought the domain name.
3) I tried to explain some of this to Mr. Birnes on the phone when I told him I was doing a story about the letter that was sent to me. I invited him, in a message, to call me with a comment for the story, and he did. But he was full of emotion, and the conversation was not the best. He was speaking without even having seen the letter, and he was making assumptions that were not true, and he was just going off on me… Not very professional, in my opinion.
The problem being (and I know this because my husband has two patents) is that if you feel your trademark is being infringed on you are obligated to defend it, or lose rights to it. It also clearly states in the trademark -
MAGAZINE PUBLISHED PERIODICALLY DEALING WITH UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS AND RELATED PHENOMENA
which is why they would be obligated to defend if someone was using ufo with the word magazine. I suppose it is possible that I am wrong about that, but judging by patent law that seems right to me.
Bill Birnes company has also filed for "UFO" as a trademark for - "Entertainment in the nature of a television series and motion picture film series." and "Computer software for games." I wonder if they are going to try to stop all the movies and television series that use the word "UFO" and any software games that use it?
Birnes also made similar threats to FATE magazine earlier this year for publishing and selling books with the word "UFO" in the titles in their magazine. I kid you not. This seems to be Birnes' new M.O. -- bully the "competition" with bogus claims of trademark and copyright infringement. Don't give in.
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