This isn't Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API's). Just found out a few hours ago I'm being sued by Twitter Feel free to tweet this link ( www.MyTwitterButler.com/I'm_Being_Sued <http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued> ) or forward on the link to any journalists you know. If you are on dig here's a dig link. http://digg.com/software/My_Twitter_Butler_I_m_Being_Sued Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com <mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com?subject=I'm%20being%20Sued> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial). ________________________________ From: Dean Collins Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Twitter is Suing me!!! So not only are Twitter fighting battles with Russian hackers they are now fighting their own third party API developer community !! I received this email 30 minutes ago stating that Twitter is suing me?? Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com <http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/> does the following. 1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS?? 2/ That no one can use the word "Twitter" in their domain 3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to twitter even though every page is labeled "Copyright 2009 (c) My Twitter Butler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app?? Is this the end for Twitter 3rd party developers? Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem? I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up 'WHY' they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about 'WHY' the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it. www.MyTwitterButler.com/I'm_Being_Sued <http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued> Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial). FENWICK & WEST LLP SILICON VALLEY CENTER 801 CALI FORN IA STREET MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041 TEL 650.988.8500 FAX 650.938.5200 WWW.FENWICK.COM August 11, 2009 KAREN WEBB VIA CERTIFIED MAIL AND EMAIL Dean Collins Attn: MyTwitterButler.com dean@cognation.net Re: Infringement of Twitter, Inc.'s Trademark Rights Dear Mr. Collins: EMAIL KWEBB@FENWICK.COM DIRECT DIAL (650) 335*7656 This firm represents Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter"), owner of the TWITTER trademark and the popular social networking and micro-blogging website at www.twitter.com. We are contacting you regarding your violation of Twitter's Terms of Service ("TOS") and spam rules, and your infringement of Twitter's trademark rights. Twitter has recently become aware that you have registered and are using the MyTwitterButler.com domain, where you advertise and offer for sale the "My Twitter Butler" software that facilitates aggressive and automatic following to Twitter users. On your website you also claim to have used the same aggressive following techniques. This activity violates Twitter's TOS and rules. In addition to the above violations, you are also infringing on Twitter's trademark rights by using the MyTwitterButler.com domain and the TWITTER trademark. As you are likely aware, Twitter's extensive and widespread use of its TWITTER trademark provides Twitter with strong and defensible rights in the mark, and has caused the mark to become well-known, if not famous, in today's online marketplace. Twitter owns trademark applications and registrations for its mark in the United States and numerous other countries for use in connection with its online services, which will provide Twitter with exclusive rights in the mark. Twitter has expended significant time and financial resources to build up the considerable customer recognition and goodwill related to its valuable TWITTER mark. In addition, in order to protect its investment and valuable intellectual property rights in its trademark, Twitter is required to prevent others from infringing or diluting the value of its brand. In light of the importance and distinctiveness of the mark and the strength of Twitter's legal rights to its valuable intellectual property, please be advised that Twitter is determined to take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights in the mark. Having said that, at this time, we are willing to assume that you did not choose to misuse Twitter's trademark with the conscious intent of infringing Twitter's rights or trading off of Twitter's goodwill. Twitter is concerned, however, that your use of My Twitter Butler and the related domain may cause confusion in the marketplace by suggesting that you and your site are somehow affiliated with Twitter, or are endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Twitter, which would result in an infringement of Twitter's valuable trademark rights. In light of the above, we must demand that you immediately: 1. deactivate the MyTwitterButler.com website; 2. transfer the MyTwitterButler.com domain to Twitter; 3. comply with Twitter's TOS and rules, which includes stopping your aggressive and automatic following and offering techniques and software for others to aggressively or automatically follow; and 4. stop all use of the My Twitter Butler name, the TWITTER mark, or any other name, logo, or domain name that includes TWITTER or any confusingly similar term. Please respond to me no later than August 24, 2009, to confirm that you have complied with these demands and to obtain domain transfer instructions. Twitter is hopeful that this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably. If, however, you do not comply with these requests, Twitter will be forced to consider suspending your Twitter accounts and take such steps as it deems necessary to protect its intellectual property rights. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, KAW ________________________________ From: Karen Webb [mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:55 PM To: de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com; Dean Collins Subject: Letter re MyTwitterButler.com Dear Mr. Collins: Please see the attached letter. Sincerely, Karen Webb Karen A. Webb | Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St. | Mountain View, CA 94041 T: 650-335-7656 | F: 650-938-5200 kwebb@fenwick.com ------------------------------------------- IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written by Fenwick & West LLP to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. ------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: The information contained in this message may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed or by their designee. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and/or Fenwick & West LLP by telephone at (650) 988-8500 and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dean Collins schrieb:
This isn't Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API's).
Just found out a few hours ago I'm being sued by Twitter
Well, at least point 2) (trademark infringement for using twitter in a domain-name) is to be expected. This could (theoretically) happen to people using Drupal in a domain-name as well. Cheers, Gerhard -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkqCcbwACgkQfg6TFvELooTyEwCcD+ueNmRhg2LsMMUO9FTAucQI 7s0An3Bjvn0SGQnjx0ApcwJhBTxxXr0h =+xuk -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Hi Dean, You might want to see this http://is.gd/2d8VQ Apparently Twitter clarified their policy on trademark last month. -Ryan On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 3:27 PM, Dean Collins<Dean@cognation.net> wrote:
This isn’t Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API’s).
Just found out a few hours ago I’m being sued by Twitter
Feel free to tweet this link ( www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued ) or forward on the link to any journalists you know.
If you are on dig here’s a dig link. http://digg.com/software/My_Twitter_Butler_I_m_Being_Sued
Regards,
Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
________________________________
From: Dean Collins Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Twitter is Suing me!!!
So not only are Twitter fighting battles with Russian hackers they are now fighting their own third party API developer community !!
I received this email 30 minutes ago stating that Twitter is suing me??
Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com does the following.
1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS??
2/ That no one can use the word “Twitter” in their domain
3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to twitter even though every page is labeled
“Copyright 2009 © My Twitter Butler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app??
Is this the end for Twitter 3rd party developers?
Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem?
I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up ‘WHY’ they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about ‘WHY’ the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it.
www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued
Regards,
Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
FENWICK & WEST LLP
SILICON VALLEY CENTER 801 CALI FORN IA STREET MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041
TEL 650.988.8500 FAX 650.938.5200 WWW.FENWICK.COM
August 11, 2009
KAREN WEBB
VIA CERTIFIED MAIL AND EMAIL
Dean Collins
Attn: MyTwitterButler.com
dean@cognation.net
Re: Infringement of Twitter, Inc.'s Trademark Rights
Dear Mr. Collins:
EMAIL KWEBB@FENWICK.COM
DIRECT DIAL (650) 335·7656
This firm represents Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter"), owner of the TWITTER trademark and
the popular social networking and micro-blogging website at www.twitter.com. We are
contacting you regarding your violation of Twitter's Terms of Service ("TOS") and spam
rules, and your infringement of Twitter's trademark rights.
Twitter has recently become aware that you have registered and are using the
MyTwitterButler.com domain, where you advertise and offer for sale the "My Twitter Butler"
software that facilitates aggressive and automatic following to Twitter users. On your website
you also claim to have used the same aggressive following techniques. This activity violates
Twitter's TOS and rules.
In addition to the above violations, you are also infringing on Twitter's trademark
rights by using the MyTwitterButler.com domain and the TWITTER trademark. As you are
likely aware, Twitter's extensive and widespread use of its TWITTER trademark provides
Twitter with strong and defensible rights in the mark, and has caused the mark to become
well-known, if not famous, in today's online marketplace. Twitter owns trademark
applications and registrations for its mark in the United States and numerous other countries
for use in connection with its online services, which will provide Twitter with exclusive rights
in the mark.
Twitter has expended significant time and financial resources to build up the
considerable customer recognition and goodwill related to its valuable TWITTER mark. In
addition, in order to protect its investment and valuable intellectual property rights in its
trademark, Twitter is required to prevent others from infringing or diluting the value of its
brand. In light of the importance and distinctiveness of the mark and the strength of Twitter's
legal rights to its valuable intellectual property, please be advised that Twitter is determined to
take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights in the mark.
Having said that, at this time, we are willing to assume that you did not choose to
misuse Twitter's trademark with the conscious intent of infringing Twitter's rights or trading
off of Twitter's goodwill. Twitter is concerned, however, that your use of My Twitter Butler
and the related domain may cause confusion in the marketplace by suggesting that you and
your site are somehow affiliated with Twitter, or are endorsed, sponsored, or approved by
Twitter, which would result in an infringement of Twitter's valuable trademark rights.
In light of the above, we must demand that you immediately:
1. deactivate the MyTwitterButler.com website;
2. transfer the MyTwitterButler.com domain to Twitter;
3. comply with Twitter's TOS and rules, which includes stopping your aggressive
and automatic following and offering techniques and software for others to
aggressively or automatically follow; and
4. stop all use of the My Twitter Butler name, the TWITTER mark, or any other
name, logo, or domain name that includes TWITTER or any confusingly similar
term.
Please respond to me no later than August 24, 2009, to confirm that you have
complied with these demands and to obtain domain transfer instructions. Twitter is hopeful
that this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably. If, however, you do not comply with
these requests, Twitter will be forced to consider suspending your Twitter accounts and take
such steps as it deems necessary to protect its intellectual property rights.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
KAW
________________________________
From: Karen Webb [mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:55 PM To: de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com; Dean Collins Subject: Letter re MyTwitterButler.com
Dear Mr. Collins:
Please see the attached letter.
Sincerely,
Karen Webb
Karen A. Webb | Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St. | Mountain View, CA 94041 T: 650-335-7656 | F: 650-938-5200 kwebb@fenwick.com
------------------------------------------- IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written by Fenwick & West LLP to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. ------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: The information contained in this message may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed or by their designee. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and/or Fenwick & West LLP by telephone at (650) 988-8500 and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
Well, use of a TM in a domain name really is a recipe for problems. And they haven't even suspended the account (yet). Doesn't seem too illogical. ________________________________________ De : development-bounces@drupal.org [development-bounces@drupal.org] de la part de Dean Collins [Dean@cognation.net] Date d'envoi : mercredi 12 août 2009 07:27 À : development@drupal.org Objet : [development] FW: Twitter is Suing me!!! This isn’t Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API’s). Just found out a few hours ago I’m being sued by Twitter Feel free to tweet this link ( www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued> ) or forward on the link to any journalists you know. If you are on dig here’s a dig link. http://digg.com/software/My_Twitter_Butler_I_m_Being_Sued Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com?subject=I'm%20being%20Sued> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial). ________________________________ From: Dean Collins Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Twitter is Suing me!!! So not only are Twitter fighting battles with Russian hackers they are now fighting their own third party API developer community !! I received this email 30 minutes ago stating that Twitter is suing me?? Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/> does the following. 1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS?? 2/ That no one can use the word “Twitter” in their domain 3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to twitter even though every page is labeled “Copyright 2009 © My Twitter Butler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app?? Is this the end for Twitter 3rd party developers? Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem? I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up ‘WHY’ they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about ‘WHY’ the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it. www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued> Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial). FENWICK & WEST LLP SILICON VALLEY CENTER 801 CALI FORN IA STREET MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041 TEL 650.988.8500 FAX 650.938.5200 WWW.FENWICK.COM August 11, 2009 KAREN WEBB VIA CERTIFIED MAIL AND EMAIL Dean Collins Attn: MyTwitterButler.com dean@cognation.net Re: Infringement of Twitter, Inc.'s Trademark Rights Dear Mr. Collins: EMAIL KWEBB@FENWICK.COM DIRECT DIAL (650) 335·7656 This firm represents Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter"), owner of the TWITTER trademark and the popular social networking and micro-blogging website at www.twitter.com. We are contacting you regarding your violation of Twitter's Terms of Service ("TOS") and spam rules, and your infringement of Twitter's trademark rights. Twitter has recently become aware that you have registered and are using the MyTwitterButler.com domain, where you advertise and offer for sale the "My Twitter Butler" software that facilitates aggressive and automatic following to Twitter users. On your website you also claim to have used the same aggressive following techniques. This activity violates Twitter's TOS and rules. In addition to the above violations, you are also infringing on Twitter's trademark rights by using the MyTwitterButler.com domain and the TWITTER trademark. As you are likely aware, Twitter's extensive and widespread use of its TWITTER trademark provides Twitter with strong and defensible rights in the mark, and has caused the mark to become well-known, if not famous, in today's online marketplace. Twitter owns trademark applications and registrations for its mark in the United States and numerous other countries for use in connection with its online services, which will provide Twitter with exclusive rights in the mark. Twitter has expended significant time and financial resources to build up the considerable customer recognition and goodwill related to its valuable TWITTER mark. In addition, in order to protect its investment and valuable intellectual property rights in its trademark, Twitter is required to prevent others from infringing or diluting the value of its brand. In light of the importance and distinctiveness of the mark and the strength of Twitter's legal rights to its valuable intellectual property, please be advised that Twitter is determined to take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights in the mark. Having said that, at this time, we are willing to assume that you did not choose to misuse Twitter's trademark with the conscious intent of infringing Twitter's rights or trading off of Twitter's goodwill. Twitter is concerned, however, that your use of My Twitter Butler and the related domain may cause confusion in the marketplace by suggesting that you and your site are somehow affiliated with Twitter, or are endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Twitter, which would result in an infringement of Twitter's valuable trademark rights. In light of the above, we must demand that you immediately: 1. deactivate the MyTwitterButler.com website; 2. transfer the MyTwitterButler.com domain to Twitter; 3. comply with Twitter's TOS and rules, which includes stopping your aggressive and automatic following and offering techniques and software for others to aggressively or automatically follow; and 4. stop all use of the My Twitter Butler name, the TWITTER mark, or any other name, logo, or domain name that includes TWITTER or any confusingly similar term. Please respond to me no later than August 24, 2009, to confirm that you have complied with these demands and to obtain domain transfer instructions. Twitter is hopeful that this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably. If, however, you do not comply with these requests, Twitter will be forced to consider suspending your Twitter accounts and take such steps as it deems necessary to protect its intellectual property rights. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, KAW ________________________________ From: Karen Webb [mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:55 PM To: de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com; Dean Collins Subject: Letter re MyTwitterButler.com Dear Mr. Collins: Please see the attached letter. Sincerely, Karen Webb Karen A. Webb | Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St. | Mountain View, CA 94041 T: 650-335-7656 | F: 650-938-5200 kwebb@fenwick.com<mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com> ------------------------------------------- IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written by Fenwick & West LLP to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. ------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: The information contained in this message may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed or by their designee. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and/or Fenwick & West LLP by telephone at (650) 988-8500 and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
Oh and I found u on mashable - http://mashable.com/2009/08/12/twitter-not-suing-developer/ On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 2:39 PM, fgm <fgm@osinet.fr> wrote:
Well, use of a TM in a domain name really is a recipe for problems. And they haven't even suspended the account (yet). Doesn't seem too illogical. ________________________________________ De : development-bounces@drupal.org [development-bounces@drupal.org] de la part de Dean Collins [Dean@cognation.net] Date d'envoi : mercredi 12 août 2009 07:27 À : development@drupal.org Objet : [development] FW: Twitter is Suing me!!!
This isn’t Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API’s).
Just found out a few hours ago I’m being sued by Twitter
Feel free to tweet this link ( www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued< http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I%27m_Being_Sued>> ) or forward on the link to any journalists you know.
If you are on dig here’s a dig link. http://digg.com/software/My_Twitter_Butler_I_m_Being_Sued
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com ?subject=I'm%20being%20Sued> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
________________________________ From: Dean Collins Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Twitter is Suing me!!!
So not only are Twitter fighting battles with Russian hackers they are now fighting their own third party API developer community !!
I received this email 30 minutes ago stating that Twitter is suing me??
Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com< http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/> does the following.
1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS??
2/ That no one can use the word “Twitter” in their domain
3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to twitter even though every page is labeled
“Copyright 2009 © My Twitter Butler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app??
Is this the end for Twitter 3rd party developers?
Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem?
I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up ‘WHY’ they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about ‘WHY’ the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it.
www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued< http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I%27m_Being_Sued>
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
FENWICK & WEST LLP SILICON VALLEY CENTER 801 CALI FORN IA STREET MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041 TEL 650.988.8500 FAX 650.938.5200 WWW.FENWICK.COM August 11, 2009 KAREN WEBB VIA CERTIFIED MAIL AND EMAIL
Dean Collins Attn: MyTwitterButler.com
dean@cognation.net Re: Infringement of Twitter, Inc.'s Trademark Rights Dear Mr. Collins: EMAIL KWEBB@FENWICK.COM DIRECT DIAL (650) 335·7656
This firm represents Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter"), owner of the TWITTER trademark and the popular social networking and micro-blogging website at www.twitter.com. We are contacting you regarding your violation of Twitter's Terms of Service ("TOS") and spam rules, and your infringement of Twitter's trademark rights. Twitter has recently become aware that you have registered and are using the MyTwitterButler.com domain, where you advertise and offer for sale the "My Twitter Butler" software that facilitates aggressive and automatic following to Twitter users. On your website you also claim to have used the same aggressive following techniques. This activity violates Twitter's TOS and rules. In addition to the above violations, you are also infringing on Twitter's trademark rights by using the MyTwitterButler.com domain and the TWITTER trademark. As you are likely aware, Twitter's extensive and widespread use of its TWITTER trademark provides Twitter with strong and defensible rights in the mark, and has caused the mark to become well-known, if not famous, in today's online marketplace. Twitter owns trademark applications and registrations for its mark in the United States and numerous other countries for use in connection with its online services, which will provide Twitter with exclusive rights in the mark. Twitter has expended significant time and financial resources to build up the considerable customer recognition and goodwill related to its valuable TWITTER mark. In addition, in order to protect its investment and valuable intellectual property rights in its trademark, Twitter is required to prevent others from infringing or diluting the value of its brand. In light of the importance and distinctiveness of the mark and the strength of Twitter's legal rights to its valuable intellectual property, please be advised that Twitter is determined to take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights in the mark. Having said that, at this time, we are willing to assume that you did not choose to misuse Twitter's trademark with the conscious intent of infringing Twitter's rights or trading off of Twitter's goodwill. Twitter is concerned, however, that your use of My Twitter Butler and the related domain may cause confusion in the marketplace by suggesting that you and your site are somehow affiliated with Twitter, or are endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Twitter, which would result in an infringement of Twitter's valuable trademark rights. In light of the above, we must demand that you immediately: 1. deactivate the MyTwitterButler.com website; 2. transfer the MyTwitterButler.com domain to Twitter; 3. comply with Twitter's TOS and rules, which includes stopping your aggressive and automatic following and offering techniques and software for others to aggressively or automatically follow; and 4. stop all use of the My Twitter Butler name, the TWITTER mark, or any other name, logo, or domain name that includes TWITTER or any confusingly similar term. Please respond to me no later than August 24, 2009, to confirm that you have complied with these demands and to obtain domain transfer instructions. Twitter is hopeful that this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably. If, however, you do not comply with these requests, Twitter will be forced to consider suspending your Twitter accounts and take such steps as it deems necessary to protect its intellectual property rights. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, KAW
________________________________ From: Karen Webb [mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:55 PM To: de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com; Dean Collins Subject: Letter re MyTwitterButler.com
Dear Mr. Collins:
Please see the attached letter.
Sincerely,
Karen Webb
Karen A. Webb | Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St. | Mountain View, CA 94041 T: 650-335-7656 | F: 650-938-5200 kwebb@fenwick.com<mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com> ------------------------------------------- IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written by Fenwick & West LLP to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. ------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: The information contained in this message may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed or by their designee. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and/or Fenwick & West LLP by telephone at (650) 988-8500 and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
OMG shock, a guy who builds an app to facilitate spamming has been spamming the internet with his pathetic sob story. And his story misrepresents the truth? For shame, Mr. Butler. When that Nigerian prince finally sends me my reward money I'm so gonna spend it on dealing with this spam stuff on the internet. On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Dipen<dipench@gmail.com> wrote:
Oh and I found u on mashable - http://mashable.com/2009/08/12/twitter-not-suing-developer/
On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 2:39 PM, fgm <fgm@osinet.fr> wrote:
Well, use of a TM in a domain name really is a recipe for problems. And they haven't even suspended the account (yet). Doesn't seem too illogical. ________________________________________ De : development-bounces@drupal.org [development-bounces@drupal.org] de la part de Dean Collins [Dean@cognation.net] Date d'envoi : mercredi 12 août 2009 07:27 À : development@drupal.org Objet : [development] FW: Twitter is Suing me!!!
This isn’t Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API’s).
Just found out a few hours ago I’m being sued by Twitter
Feel free to tweet this link ( www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued> ) or forward on the link to any journalists you know.
If you are on dig here’s a dig link. http://digg.com/software/My_Twitter_Butler_I_m_Being_Sued
Regards, Dean Collins
dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com?subject=I'm%20being%20Sued> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
________________________________ From: Dean Collins Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Twitter is Suing me!!!
So not only are Twitter fighting battles with Russian hackers they are now fighting their own third party API developer community !!
I received this email 30 minutes ago stating that Twitter is suing me??
Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/> does the following.
1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS??
2/ That no one can use the word “Twitter” in their domain
3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to twitter even though every page is labeled
“Copyright 2009 © My Twitter Butler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app??
Is this the end for Twitter 3rd party developers?
Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem?
I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up ‘WHY’ they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about ‘WHY’ the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it.
www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued>
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
FENWICK & WEST LLP SILICON VALLEY CENTER 801 CALI FORN IA STREET MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041 TEL 650.988.8500 FAX 650.938.5200 WWW.FENWICK.COM August 11, 2009 KAREN WEBB VIA CERTIFIED MAIL AND EMAIL
Dean Collins Attn: MyTwitterButler.com
dean@cognation.net Re: Infringement of Twitter, Inc.'s Trademark Rights Dear Mr. Collins: EMAIL KWEBB@FENWICK.COM DIRECT DIAL (650) 335·7656
This firm represents Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter"), owner of the TWITTER trademark and the popular social networking and micro-blogging website at www.twitter.com. We are contacting you regarding your violation of Twitter's Terms of Service ("TOS") and spam rules, and your infringement of Twitter's trademark rights. Twitter has recently become aware that you have registered and are using the MyTwitterButler.com domain, where you advertise and offer for sale the "My Twitter Butler" software that facilitates aggressive and automatic following to Twitter users. On your website you also claim to have used the same aggressive following techniques. This activity violates Twitter's TOS and rules. In addition to the above violations, you are also infringing on Twitter's trademark rights by using the MyTwitterButler.com domain and the TWITTER trademark. As you are likely aware, Twitter's extensive and widespread use of its TWITTER trademark provides Twitter with strong and defensible rights in the mark, and has caused the mark to become well-known, if not famous, in today's online marketplace. Twitter owns trademark applications and registrations for its mark in the United States and numerous other countries for use in connection with its online services, which will provide Twitter with exclusive rights in the mark. Twitter has expended significant time and financial resources to build up the considerable customer recognition and goodwill related to its valuable TWITTER mark. In addition, in order to protect its investment and valuable intellectual property rights in its trademark, Twitter is required to prevent others from infringing or diluting the value of its brand. In light of the importance and distinctiveness of the mark and the strength of Twitter's legal rights to its valuable intellectual property, please be advised that Twitter is determined to take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights in the mark. Having said that, at this time, we are willing to assume that you did not choose to misuse Twitter's trademark with the conscious intent of infringing Twitter's rights or trading off of Twitter's goodwill. Twitter is concerned, however, that your use of My Twitter Butler and the related domain may cause confusion in the marketplace by suggesting that you and your site are somehow affiliated with Twitter, or are endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Twitter, which would result in an infringement of Twitter's valuable trademark rights. In light of the above, we must demand that you immediately: 1. deactivate the MyTwitterButler.com website; 2. transfer the MyTwitterButler.com domain to Twitter; 3. comply with Twitter's TOS and rules, which includes stopping your aggressive and automatic following and offering techniques and software for others to aggressively or automatically follow; and 4. stop all use of the My Twitter Butler name, the TWITTER mark, or any other name, logo, or domain name that includes TWITTER or any confusingly similar term. Please respond to me no later than August 24, 2009, to confirm that you have complied with these demands and to obtain domain transfer instructions. Twitter is hopeful that this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably. If, however, you do not comply with these requests, Twitter will be forced to consider suspending your Twitter accounts and take such steps as it deems necessary to protect its intellectual property rights. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, KAW
________________________________ From: Karen Webb [mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:55 PM To: de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com; Dean Collins Subject: Letter re MyTwitterButler.com
Dear Mr. Collins:
Please see the attached letter.
Sincerely,
Karen Webb
Karen A. Webb | Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St. | Mountain View, CA 94041 T: 650-335-7656 | F: 650-938-5200 kwebb@fenwick.com<mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com> ------------------------------------------- IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written by Fenwick & West LLP to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. ------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: The information contained in this message may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed or by their designee. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and/or Fenwick & West LLP by telephone at (650) 988-8500 and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
You can't tell a cease and desist letter from a lawsuit, dean? The whole idea of creating a product/service with someone else's trademark must have felt like a horrible idea in the first place. Second, this is a paid application that must have pissed off twitter even more. As the mashable link states, twitter isnt out to wage war on its community. They want YOU to stop helping people who annoy the community. You were really hoping for something on the lines of #savejon didn't you? If you didn't understand the situation, let me put it in plain english: Dean, get rid of the damn website service and the website, let the domain expire, and they won't do anything to you. Travis Russell wrote:
OMG shock, a guy who builds an app to facilitate spamming has been spamming the internet with his pathetic sob story. And his story misrepresents the truth? For shame, Mr. Butler.
When that Nigerian prince finally sends me my reward money I'm so gonna spend it on dealing with this spam stuff on the internet.
On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Dipen<dipench@gmail.com> wrote:
Oh and I found u on mashable - http://mashable.com/2009/08/12/twitter-not-suing-developer/
On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 2:39 PM, fgm<fgm@osinet.fr> wrote:
Well, use of a TM in a domain name really is a recipe for problems. And they haven't even suspended the account (yet). Doesn't seem too illogical. ________________________________________ De : development-bounces@drupal.org [development-bounces@drupal.org] de la part de Dean Collins [Dean@cognation.net] Date d'envoi : mercredi 12 août 2009 07:27 À : development@drupal.org Objet : [development] FW: Twitter is Suing me!!!
This isn’t Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API’s).
Just found out a few hours ago I’m being sued by Twitter
Feel free to tweet this link ( www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued> ) or forward on the link to any journalists you know.
If you are on dig here’s a dig link. http://digg.com/software/My_Twitter_Butler_I_m_Being_Sued
Regards, Dean Collins
dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com?subject=I'm%20being%20Sued> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
________________________________ From: Dean Collins Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Twitter is Suing me!!!
So not only are Twitter fighting battles with Russian hackers they are now fighting their own third party API developer community !!
I received this email 30 minutes ago stating that Twitter is suing me??
Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/> does the following.
1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS??
2/ That no one can use the word “Twitter” in their domain
3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to twitter even though every page is labeled
“Copyright 2009 © My Twitter Butler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app??
Is this the end for Twitter 3rd party developers?
Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem?
I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up ‘WHY’ they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about ‘WHY’ the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it.
www.MyTwitterButler.com/I’m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued>
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
FENWICK& WEST LLP SILICON VALLEY CENTER 801 CALI FORN IA STREET MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041 TEL 650.988.8500 FAX 650.938.5200 WWW.FENWICK.COM August 11, 2009 KAREN WEBB VIA CERTIFIED MAIL AND EMAIL
Dean Collins Attn: MyTwitterButler.com
dean@cognation.net Re: Infringement of Twitter, Inc.'s Trademark Rights Dear Mr. Collins: EMAIL KWEBB@FENWICK.COM DIRECT DIAL (650) 335·7656
This firm represents Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter"), owner of the TWITTER trademark and the popular social networking and micro-blogging website at www.twitter.com. We are contacting you regarding your violation of Twitter's Terms of Service ("TOS") and spam rules, and your infringement of Twitter's trademark rights. Twitter has recently become aware that you have registered and are using the MyTwitterButler.com domain, where you advertise and offer for sale the "My Twitter Butler" software that facilitates aggressive and automatic following to Twitter users. On your website you also claim to have used the same aggressive following techniques. This activity violates Twitter's TOS and rules. In addition to the above violations, you are also infringing on Twitter's trademark rights by using the MyTwitterButler.com domain and the TWITTER trademark. As you are likely aware, Twitter's extensive and widespread use of its TWITTER trademark provides Twitter with strong and defensible rights in the mark, and has caused the mark to become well-known, if not famous, in today's online marketplace. Twitter owns trademark applications and registrations for its mark in the United States and numerous other countries for use in connection with its online services, which will provide Twitter with exclusive rights in the mark. Twitter has expended significant time and financial resources to build up the considerable customer recognition and goodwill related to its valuable TWITTER mark. In addition, in order to protect its investment and valuable intellectual property rights in its trademark, Twitter is required to prevent others from infringing or diluting the value of its brand. In light of the importance and distinctiveness of the mark and the strength of Twitter's legal rights to its valuable intellectual property, please be advised that Twitter is determined to take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights in the mark. Having said that, at this time, we are willing to assume that you did not choose to misuse Twitter's trademark with the conscious intent of infringing Twitter's rights or trading off of Twitter's goodwill. Twitter is concerned, however, that your use of My Twitter Butler and the related domain may cause confusion in the marketplace by suggesting that you and your site are somehow affiliated with Twitter, or are endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Twitter, which would result in an infringement of Twitter's valuable trademark rights. In light of the above, we must demand that you immediately: 1. deactivate the MyTwitterButler.com website; 2. transfer the MyTwitterButler.com domain to Twitter; 3. comply with Twitter's TOS and rules, which includes stopping your aggressive and automatic following and offering techniques and software for others to aggressively or automatically follow; and 4. stop all use of the My Twitter Butler name, the TWITTER mark, or any other name, logo, or domain name that includes TWITTER or any confusingly similar term. Please respond to me no later than August 24, 2009, to confirm that you have complied with these demands and to obtain domain transfer instructions. Twitter is hopeful that this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably. If, however, you do not comply with these requests, Twitter will be forced to consider suspending your Twitter accounts and take such steps as it deems necessary to protect its intellectual property rights. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, KAW
________________________________ From: Karen Webb [mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:55 PM To: de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com; Dean Collins Subject: Letter re MyTwitterButler.com
Dear Mr. Collins:
Please see the attached letter.
Sincerely,
Karen Webb
Karen A. Webb | Fenwick& West LLP 801 California St. | Mountain View, CA 94041 T: 650-335-7656 | F: 650-938-5200 kwebb@fenwick.com<mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com> ------------------------------------------- IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written by Fenwick & West LLP to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. ------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: The information contained in this message may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed or by their designee. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and/or Fenwick& West LLP by telephone at (650) 988-8500 and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 rajasekharan schrieb:
You can't tell a cease and desist letter from a lawsuit, dean?
The whole idea of creating a product/service with someone else's trademark must have felt like a horrible idea in the first place.
Well, there's a lot of domains who use "drupal" in their domain and apparently haven't thought much about it either. I also note that companies that I'd classify as successful Drupal companies do not do that. Maybe the conclusion should be that the people who think about their domain for more than like 5¢ also do so about the rest of their business... Cheers, Gerhard -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkqC1MEACgkQfg6TFvELooSLhgCeJJtC45Rx/VT6WhXDiM0zoVjO M64An2+xFH+pWMuJ2pcqzQ6olpQAGK9c =yq/I -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Quoting rajasekharan <websweetweb@gmail.com>:
If you didn't understand the situation, let me put it in plain english: Dean, get rid of the damn website service and the website, let the domain expire, and they won't do anything to you.
I understood from the letter content that they are willing to work with Dean to transfer the domain to twitter.com. They may even work a deal with you for the rights of your software. Don't burn the bridge before you cross over it. Find out what Twitter is willing to do. Get yourself a good lawyer. They may even be willing to give you a contract to maintain the site with changes. -- Earnie -- http://r-feed.com/ -- http://for-my-kids.com/ -- http://www.4offer.biz/ -- http://give-me-an-offer.com/
Earnie Boyd wrote:
I understood from the letter content that they are willing to work with Dean to transfer the domain to twitter.com. They may even work a deal with you for the rights of your software. Don't burn the bridge before you cross over it. Find out what Twitter is willing to do. Get yourself a good lawyer. They may even be willing to give you a contract to maintain the site with changes. Noooo no, they meant for Dean to give up rights to mytwitterbutler.com and transfer it to Twitter's ownership. They don't want to work anything out except mytwitterbutler.com being gone. It's a pretty standard C&D.
For those of you who didn't go see what mytwitterbutler does, it's a standalone Windows app that does two things: 1) Automatically follows people based on keyword, and 2) Send Direct Messages to everyone on your list, all at once. I can think of a couple legitimate uses for this, but the spammy uses far outweigh the legit ones in my head. Couple that with the following instructions from the faq: http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/FAQ.html How Do I Increase API Limits ? - You visit whitelisting request form basically if you indicate you are a developer and are "testing a rest api" application they will approve your IP address to 20,000 calls per hour. DO NOT SAY YOU ARE USING TWITTER BUTLER - otherwise they wont approve your request. Good on Twitter for combating spam applications, I say. -D
When I saw this I had the same feeling that it would be a cease and desist, the widely practiced "first step" in issues such as this. And just to clear up the whole trademark thing, it isn't as clean cut as some might expect. For example, if I started a site called night-twitter.com that is used to track tweets made in the twilight, then that would be a trademark violation. However, if I made a site called night-twitter.com that posted the songs of nocturnal birds then that wouldn't be a trademark violation, since it has nothing to do with the Twitter service and 'twitter' is actually a recognized word in the English language. So yeah - creating a twitter app with twitter in the name is not always the best thing to do, at least without any sort of consent from Twitter. Jamie Holly http://www.intoxination.net http://www.hollyit.net Dipen wrote:
Oh and I found u on mashable - http://mashable.com/2009/08/12/twitter-not-suing-developer/
On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 2:39 PM, fgm <fgm@osinet.fr <mailto:fgm@osinet.fr>> wrote:
Well, use of a TM in a domain name really is a recipe for problems. And they haven't even suspended the account (yet). Doesn't seem too illogical. ________________________________________ De : development-bounces@drupal.org <mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org> [development-bounces@drupal.org <mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org>] de la part de Dean Collins [Dean@cognation.net <mailto:Dean@cognation.net>] Date d'envoi : mercredi 12 août 2009 07:27 À : development@drupal.org <mailto:development@drupal.org> Objet : [development] FW: Twitter is Suing me!!!
This isn’t Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API’s).
Just found out a few hours ago I’m being sued by Twitter
Feel free to tweet this link ( www.MyTwitterButler.com/I <http://www.MyTwitterButler.com/I>’m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued <http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I%27m_Being_Sued>> ) or forward on the link to any journalists you know.
If you are on dig here’s a dig link. http://digg.com/software/My_Twitter_Butler_I_m_Being_Sued
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com <mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com>?subject=I'm%20being%20Sued> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
________________________________ From: Dean Collins Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Twitter is Suing me!!!
So not only are Twitter fighting battles with Russian hackers they are now fighting their own third party API developer community !!
I received this email 30 minutes ago stating that Twitter is suing me??
Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com <http://www.MyTwitterButler.com><http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/> does the following.
1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS??
2/ That no one can use the word “Twitter” in their domain
3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to twitter even though every page is labeled
“Copyright 2009 © My Twitter Butler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app??
Is this the end for Twitter 3rd party developers?
Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem?
I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up ‘WHY’ they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about ‘WHY’ the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it.
www.MyTwitterButler.com/I <http://www.MyTwitterButler.com/I>’m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued <http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I%27m_Being_Sued>>
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com <mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com>> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
FENWICK & WEST LLP SILICON VALLEY CENTER 801 CALI FORN IA STREET MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041 TEL 650.988.8500 FAX 650.938.5200 WWW.FENWICK.COM <http://WWW.FENWICK.COM> August 11, 2009 KAREN WEBB VIA CERTIFIED MAIL AND EMAIL
Dean Collins Attn: MyTwitterButler.com
dean@cognation.net <mailto:dean@cognation.net> Re: Infringement of Twitter, Inc.'s Trademark Rights Dear Mr. Collins: EMAIL KWEBB@FENWICK.COM <mailto:KWEBB@FENWICK.COM> DIRECT DIAL (650) 335·7656
This firm represents Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter"), owner of the TWITTER trademark and the popular social networking and micro-blogging website at www.twitter.com <http://www.twitter.com>. We are contacting you regarding your violation of Twitter's Terms of Service ("TOS") and spam rules, and your infringement of Twitter's trademark rights. Twitter has recently become aware that you have registered and are using the MyTwitterButler.com domain, where you advertise and offer for sale the "My Twitter Butler" software that facilitates aggressive and automatic following to Twitter users. On your website you also claim to have used the same aggressive following techniques. This activity violates Twitter's TOS and rules. In addition to the above violations, you are also infringing on Twitter's trademark rights by using the MyTwitterButler.com domain and the TWITTER trademark. As you are likely aware, Twitter's extensive and widespread use of its TWITTER trademark provides Twitter with strong and defensible rights in the mark, and has caused the mark to become well-known, if not famous, in today's online marketplace. Twitter owns trademark applications and registrations for its mark in the United States and numerous other countries for use in connection with its online services, which will provide Twitter with exclusive rights in the mark. Twitter has expended significant time and financial resources to build up the considerable customer recognition and goodwill related to its valuable TWITTER mark. In addition, in order to protect its investment and valuable intellectual property rights in its trademark, Twitter is required to prevent others from infringing or diluting the value of its brand. In light of the importance and distinctiveness of the mark and the strength of Twitter's legal rights to its valuable intellectual property, please be advised that Twitter is determined to take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights in the mark. Having said that, at this time, we are willing to assume that you did not choose to misuse Twitter's trademark with the conscious intent of infringing Twitter's rights or trading off of Twitter's goodwill. Twitter is concerned, however, that your use of My Twitter Butler and the related domain may cause confusion in the marketplace by suggesting that you and your site are somehow affiliated with Twitter, or are endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Twitter, which would result in an infringement of Twitter's valuable trademark rights. In light of the above, we must demand that you immediately: 1. deactivate the MyTwitterButler.com website; 2. transfer the MyTwitterButler.com domain to Twitter; 3. comply with Twitter's TOS and rules, which includes stopping your aggressive and automatic following and offering techniques and software for others to aggressively or automatically follow; and 4. stop all use of the My Twitter Butler name, the TWITTER mark, or any other name, logo, or domain name that includes TWITTER or any confusingly similar term. Please respond to me no later than August 24, 2009, to confirm that you have complied with these demands and to obtain domain transfer instructions. Twitter is hopeful that this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably. If, however, you do not comply with these requests, Twitter will be forced to consider suspending your Twitter accounts and take such steps as it deems necessary to protect its intellectual property rights. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, KAW
________________________________ From: Karen Webb [mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com <mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com>] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:55 PM To: de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com <mailto:de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com>; Dean Collins Subject: Letter re MyTwitterButler.com
Dear Mr. Collins:
Please see the attached letter.
Sincerely,
Karen Webb
Karen A. Webb | Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St. | Mountain View, CA 94041 T: 650-335-7656 | F: 650-938-5200 kwebb@fenwick.com <mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com><mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com <mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com>> ------------------------------------------- IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written by Fenwick & West LLP to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. ------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: The information contained in this message may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed or by their designee. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and/or Fenwick & West LLP by telephone at (650) 988-8500 and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
So I guess twittercounter.com twitterfall.com twitter-friends.com www.twitter.ca www.tinytwitter.com www.twitterbuttons.com www.accessibletwitter.com twitterfeed.com twitterpatterns.com www.twitterlocal.net www.twitterbackgrounds.com twittergallery.com twitteranalyzer.com whentwitterisdown.com destroytwitter.com blog.twittervotereport.com twitter.pbworks.com twitter.polldaddy.com twitter.alltop.com twitter.infinityward.com twitter.grader.com and the list goes on... Are all getting C&D's emails from the lawyer this week? Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial). -----Original Message----- From: development-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Jamie Holly Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 9:59 AM To: development@drupal.org Subject: Re: [development] RE : Twitter is Suing me!!! When I saw this I had the same feeling that it would be a cease and desist, the widely practiced "first step" in issues such as this. And just to clear up the whole trademark thing, it isn't as clean cut as some might expect. For example, if I started a site called night-twitter.com that is used to track tweets made in the twilight, then that would be a trademark violation. However, if I made a site called night-twitter.com that posted the songs of nocturnal birds then that wouldn't be a trademark violation, since it has nothing to do with the Twitter service and 'twitter' is actually a recognized word in the English language. So yeah - creating a twitter app with twitter in the name is not always the best thing to do, at least without any sort of consent from Twitter. Jamie Holly http://www.intoxination.net http://www.hollyit.net Dipen wrote:
Oh and I found u on mashable - http://mashable.com/2009/08/12/twitter-not-suing-developer/
On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 2:39 PM, fgm <fgm@osinet.fr <mailto:fgm@osinet.fr>> wrote:
Well, use of a TM in a domain name really is a recipe for problems. And they haven't even suspended the account (yet). Doesn't seem too illogical. ________________________________________ De : development-bounces@drupal.org <mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org> [development-bounces@drupal.org <mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org>] de la part de Dean Collins [Dean@cognation.net <mailto:Dean@cognation.net>] Date d'envoi : mercredi 12 août 2009 07:27 À : development@drupal.org <mailto:development@drupal.org> Objet : [development] FW: Twitter is Suing me!!!
This isn't Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API's).
Just found out a few hours ago I'm being sued by Twitter
Feel free to tweet this link ( www.MyTwitterButler.com/I <http://www.MyTwitterButler.com/I>'m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued <http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I%27m_Being_Sued>> ) or forward on the link to any journalists you know.
If you are on dig here's a dig link. http://digg.com/software/My_Twitter_Butler_I_m_Being_Sued
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com <mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com>?subject=I'm%20being%20Sued> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
________________________________ From: Dean Collins Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Twitter is Suing me!!!
So not only are Twitter fighting battles with Russian hackers they are now fighting their own third party API developer community !!
I received this email 30 minutes ago stating that Twitter is suing me??
Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com <http://www.MyTwitterButler.com><http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/> does the following.
1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS??
2/ That no one can use the word "Twitter" in their domain
3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to twitter even though every page is labeled
"Copyright 2009 © My Twitter Butler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app??
Is this the end for Twitter 3rd party developers?
Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem?
I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up 'WHY' they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about 'WHY' the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it.
www.MyTwitterButler.com/I <http://www.MyTwitterButler.com/I>'m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued <http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I%27m_Being_Sued>>
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com <mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com>> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
FENWICK & WEST LLP SILICON VALLEY CENTER 801 CALI FORN IA STREET MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041 TEL 650.988.8500 FAX 650.938.5200 WWW.FENWICK.COM <http://WWW.FENWICK.COM> August 11, 2009 KAREN WEBB VIA CERTIFIED MAIL AND EMAIL
Dean Collins Attn: MyTwitterButler.com
dean@cognation.net <mailto:dean@cognation.net> Re: Infringement of Twitter, Inc.'s Trademark Rights Dear Mr. Collins: EMAIL KWEBB@FENWICK.COM <mailto:KWEBB@FENWICK.COM> DIRECT DIAL (650) 335·7656
This firm represents Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter"), owner of the TWITTER trademark and the popular social networking and micro-blogging website at www.twitter.com <http://www.twitter.com>. We are contacting you regarding your violation of Twitter's Terms of Service ("TOS") and spam rules, and your infringement of Twitter's trademark rights. Twitter has recently become aware that you have registered and are using the MyTwitterButler.com domain, where you advertise and offer for sale the "My Twitter Butler" software that facilitates aggressive and automatic following to Twitter users. On your website you also claim to have used the same aggressive following techniques. This activity violates Twitter's TOS and rules. In addition to the above violations, you are also infringing on Twitter's trademark rights by using the MyTwitterButler.com domain and the TWITTER trademark. As you are likely aware, Twitter's extensive and widespread use of its TWITTER trademark provides Twitter with strong and defensible rights in the mark, and has caused the mark to become well-known, if not famous, in today's online marketplace. Twitter owns trademark applications and registrations for its mark in the United States and numerous other countries for use in connection with its online services, which will provide Twitter with exclusive rights in the mark. Twitter has expended significant time and financial resources to build up the considerable customer recognition and goodwill related to its valuable TWITTER mark. In addition, in order to protect its investment and valuable intellectual property rights in its trademark, Twitter is required to prevent others from infringing or diluting the value of its brand. In light of the importance and distinctiveness of the mark and the strength of Twitter's legal rights to its valuable intellectual property, please be advised that Twitter is determined to take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights in the mark. Having said that, at this time, we are willing to assume that you did not choose to misuse Twitter's trademark with the conscious intent of infringing Twitter's rights or trading off of Twitter's goodwill. Twitter is concerned, however, that your use of My Twitter Butler and the related domain may cause confusion in the marketplace by suggesting that you and your site are somehow affiliated with Twitter, or are endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Twitter, which would result in an infringement of Twitter's valuable trademark rights. In light of the above, we must demand that you immediately: 1. deactivate the MyTwitterButler.com website; 2. transfer the MyTwitterButler.com domain to Twitter; 3. comply with Twitter's TOS and rules, which includes stopping your aggressive and automatic following and offering techniques and software for others to aggressively or automatically follow; and 4. stop all use of the My Twitter Butler name, the TWITTER mark, or any other name, logo, or domain name that includes TWITTER or any confusingly similar term. Please respond to me no later than August 24, 2009, to confirm that you have complied with these demands and to obtain domain transfer instructions. Twitter is hopeful that this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably. If, however, you do not comply with these requests, Twitter will be forced to consider suspending your Twitter accounts and take such steps as it deems necessary to protect its intellectual property rights. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, KAW
________________________________ From: Karen Webb [mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com <mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com>] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:55 PM To: de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com <mailto:de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com>; Dean Collins Subject: Letter re MyTwitterButler.com
Dear Mr. Collins:
Please see the attached letter.
Sincerely,
Karen Webb
Karen A. Webb | Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St. | Mountain View, CA 94041 T: 650-335-7656 | F: 650-938-5200 kwebb@fenwick.com <mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com><mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com <mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com>> ------------------------------------------- IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written by Fenwick & West LLP to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. ------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: The information contained in this message may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed or by their designee. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and/or Fenwick & West LLP by telephone at (650) 988-8500 and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
That is at the discretion of Twitter. It's their trademark and they can chose to enforce it as they please. From my reading of the letter you recieved the trademark issue is only seconday. Their main objection is the purpose of your application in the "aggressive auto follow". That sent up the red flags, and once that happens they will throw everything at you. IMHO there is a valuable lesson in this for developers. When doing anything with third party apps make sure you read, understand and follow that 3rd parties TOS. I constantly review them for any 3rd party application in which I utilize their APIs. Jamie Holly http://www.intoxination.net http://www.hollyit.net Dean Collins wrote:
So I guess
twittercounter.com twitterfall.com twitter-friends.com www.twitter.ca www.tinytwitter.com www.twitterbuttons.com www.accessibletwitter.com twitterfeed.com twitterpatterns.com www.twitterlocal.net www.twitterbackgrounds.com twittergallery.com twitteranalyzer.com whentwitterisdown.com destroytwitter.com blog.twittervotereport.com twitter.pbworks.com twitter.polldaddy.com twitter.alltop.com twitter.infinityward.com twitter.grader.com
and the list goes on...
Are all getting C&D's emails from the lawyer this week?
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
-----Original Message----- From: development-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Jamie Holly Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 9:59 AM To: development@drupal.org Subject: Re: [development] RE : Twitter is Suing me!!!
When I saw this I had the same feeling that it would be a cease and desist, the widely practiced "first step" in issues such as this.
And just to clear up the whole trademark thing, it isn't as clean cut as some might expect. For example, if I started a site called night-twitter.com that is used to track tweets made in the twilight, then that would be a trademark violation. However, if I made a site called night-twitter.com that posted the songs of nocturnal birds then that wouldn't be a trademark violation, since it has nothing to do with the Twitter service and 'twitter' is actually a recognized word in the English language.
So yeah - creating a twitter app with twitter in the name is not always the best thing to do, at least without any sort of consent from Twitter.
Jamie Holly http://www.intoxination.net http://www.hollyit.net
Dipen wrote:
Oh and I found u on mashable - http://mashable.com/2009/08/12/twitter-not-suing-developer/
On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 2:39 PM, fgm <fgm@osinet.fr <mailto:fgm@osinet.fr>> wrote:
Well, use of a TM in a domain name really is a recipe for problems. And they haven't even suspended the account (yet). Doesn't seem too illogical. ________________________________________ De : development-bounces@drupal.org <mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org> [development-bounces@drupal.org <mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org>] de la part de Dean Collins [Dean@cognation.net <mailto:Dean@cognation.net>] Date d'envoi : mercredi 12 août 2009 07:27 À : development@drupal.org <mailto:development@drupal.org> Objet : [development] FW: Twitter is Suing me!!!
This isn't Drupal related but I figure several developers on this list have built apps for Twitter (or other 3rd party API's).
Just found out a few hours ago I'm being sued by Twitter
Feel free to tweet this link ( www.MyTwitterButler.com/I <http://www.MyTwitterButler.com/I>'m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued <http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I%27m_Being_Sued>> ) or forward on the link to any journalists you know.
If you are on dig here's a dig link. http://digg.com/software/My_Twitter_Butler_I_m_Being_Sued
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com <mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com>?subject=I'm%20being%20Sued> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
________________________________ From: Dean Collins Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Twitter is Suing me!!!
So not only are Twitter fighting battles with Russian hackers they are now fighting their own third party API developer community !!
I received this email 30 minutes ago stating that Twitter is suing me??
Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com <http://www.MyTwitterButler.com><http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/> does the following.
1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS??
2/ That no one can use the word "Twitter" in their domain
3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to twitter even though every page is labeled
"Copyright 2009 © My Twitter Butler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app??
Is this the end for Twitter 3rd party developers?
Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem?
I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up 'WHY' they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about 'WHY' the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it.
www.MyTwitterButler.com/I <http://www.MyTwitterButler.com/I>'m_Being_Sued<http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I'm_Being_Sued <http://www.mytwitterbutler.com/I%27m_Being_Sued>>
Regards, Dean Collins dean@MyTwitterButler.com<mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com <mailto:dean@MyTwitterButler.com>> +1-212-203-4357 New York +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).
FENWICK & WEST LLP SILICON VALLEY CENTER 801 CALI FORN IA STREET MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041 TEL 650.988.8500 FAX 650.938.5200 WWW.FENWICK.COM <http://WWW.FENWICK.COM> August 11, 2009 KAREN WEBB VIA CERTIFIED MAIL AND EMAIL
Dean Collins Attn: MyTwitterButler.com
dean@cognation.net <mailto:dean@cognation.net> Re: Infringement of Twitter, Inc.'s Trademark Rights Dear Mr. Collins: EMAIL KWEBB@FENWICK.COM <mailto:KWEBB@FENWICK.COM> DIRECT DIAL (650) 335·7656
This firm represents Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter"), owner of the TWITTER trademark and the popular social networking and micro-blogging website at www.twitter.com <http://www.twitter.com>. We are contacting you regarding your violation of Twitter's Terms of Service ("TOS") and spam rules, and your infringement of Twitter's trademark rights. Twitter has recently become aware that you have registered and are using the MyTwitterButler.com domain, where you advertise and offer for sale the "My Twitter Butler" software that facilitates aggressive and automatic following to Twitter users. On your website you also claim to have used the same aggressive following techniques. This activity violates Twitter's TOS and rules. In addition to the above violations, you are also infringing on Twitter's trademark rights by using the MyTwitterButler.com domain and the TWITTER trademark. As you are likely aware, Twitter's extensive and widespread use of its TWITTER trademark provides Twitter with strong and defensible rights in the mark, and has caused the mark to become well-known, if not famous, in today's online marketplace. Twitter owns trademark applications and registrations for its mark in the United States and numerous other countries for use in connection with its online services, which will provide Twitter with exclusive rights in the mark. Twitter has expended significant time and financial resources to build up the considerable customer recognition and goodwill related to its valuable TWITTER mark. In addition, in order to protect its investment and valuable intellectual property rights in its trademark, Twitter is required to prevent others from infringing or diluting the value of its brand. In light of the importance and distinctiveness of the mark and the strength of Twitter's legal rights to its valuable intellectual property, please be advised that Twitter is determined to take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights in the mark. Having said that, at this time, we are willing to assume that you did not choose to misuse Twitter's trademark with the conscious intent of infringing Twitter's rights or trading off of Twitter's goodwill. Twitter is concerned, however, that your use of My Twitter Butler and the related domain may cause confusion in the marketplace by suggesting that you and your site are somehow affiliated with Twitter, or are endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Twitter, which would result in an infringement of Twitter's valuable trademark rights. In light of the above, we must demand that you immediately: 1. deactivate the MyTwitterButler.com website; 2. transfer the MyTwitterButler.com domain to Twitter; 3. comply with Twitter's TOS and rules, which includes stopping your aggressive and automatic following and offering techniques and software for others to aggressively or automatically follow; and 4. stop all use of the My Twitter Butler name, the TWITTER mark, or any other name, logo, or domain name that includes TWITTER or any confusingly similar term. Please respond to me no later than August 24, 2009, to confirm that you have complied with these demands and to obtain domain transfer instructions. Twitter is hopeful that this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably. If, however, you do not comply with these requests, Twitter will be forced to consider suspending your Twitter accounts and take such steps as it deems necessary to protect its intellectual property rights. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, KAW
________________________________ From: Karen Webb [mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com <mailto:KWebb@fenwick.com>] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:55 PM To: de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com <mailto:de5ffa48513f2670-348777@privacy.no-ip.com>; Dean Collins Subject: Letter re MyTwitterButler.com
Dear Mr. Collins:
Please see the attached letter.
Sincerely,
Karen Webb
Karen A. Webb | Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St. | Mountain View, CA 94041 T: 650-335-7656 | F: 650-938-5200 kwebb@fenwick.com <mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com><mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com <mailto:kwebb@fenwick.com>> ------------------------------------------- IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written by Fenwick & West LLP to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. ------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: The information contained in this message may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed or by their designee. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and/or Fenwick & West LLP by telephone at (650) 988-8500 and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
IMHO there is a valuable lesson in this for developers.
Yes: don't spam! You spammed twitter, got the book thrown at you and because in your mind spamming is the right thing to do, you proceeded to spam the Drupal development list. So what you got is spam, spam, spam. Can we please ban this guy from our development list? Please?
C'mon, don't ban the guy... he probably learned a lot from the thread, and I did too. On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 10:33 AM, Karoly Negyesi<karoly@negyesi.net> wrote:
IMHO there is a valuable lesson in this for developers.
Yes: don't spam! You spammed twitter, got the book thrown at you and because in your mind spamming is the right thing to do, you proceeded to spam the Drupal development list. So what you got is spam, spam, spam.
Can we please ban this guy from our development list? Please?
-- Margie http://www.BaltimoreUrbanAg.org http://www.FarmersMarketVideo.org http://www.FriendlyCoffeehouse.org http://www.packtpub.com/drupal-5-views-recipes/book
participants (13)
-
Dean Collins -
Dipen -
Domenic Santangelo -
Earnie Boyd -
fgm -
Gerhard Killesreiter -
Jamie Holly -
Karoly Negyesi -
Margie Roswell -
rajasekharan -
Ryan Cross -
Travis Russell -
ttw+drupal＠cobbled.net