Does anyone have any experience or stories to share about recovering or seizing usernames or domain names for brands or marks that you own?

I suspect in the very near future I'll be taking this up with twitter and facebook to get the account names/ids that are using my trademarks terminated and assigned over to me.

I should probably have just signed up for these services "back in the day" but I didn't. I'm still not a fan of those services personally, but I can't deny that others are, so I have to move to help my business cater to its audience.

I for one hope that you fail in your attempts. Why, morally, should some poor people who happen to have picked the same two words as you for their online presence (assuming that you are referring to @twistedmelon) have them confiscated from them. It isn't as if it is likely that some drummer from London has seen your site and decided to steal your brand.

P.S. I have zero idea on what the legal merits are of your position

I'm going to have to agree with Andy. I don't think you're going to have much of a leg to stand on, Bruno. If the current owner of that account were pretending to represent your company, or was even just using it to bad-mouth your brand, then you might have some luck and I'd say more power to you (though I still wouldn't have any idea what channels you need to go through). But that's just some dude, and Twitter is never going to give you his username because you want it.

I say this as someone in that dude's position. I happen to share the same name as some popular Christian rock musician, and I get tweets for him all the time. That guy had to choose a different username when he joined because he got there after me. If I had been impersonating him, Twitter probably would have helped him out (I've heard of it happening).

If I were you, I'd immediately go grab "twistedmeloninc" so I at least would have a decent username. It doesn't really matter too much if your name isn't exact, because I think if someone actually wants to follow you they'll search for you or they'll get to your account through your website or places like your email signature (if you choose to do that).

Well, it's not even that, is it? It's poor people who happen to be trading off the same Happy Mondays lyrics as you. Surely if you make a fuss, you're demonstrating that melons and the twisting thereof comprise a valuable property, and there's a risk that Shaun Ryder and Bez will sweep in and pick up the lot...

I suggest you just go and rotate a grapefruit instead. Or oscillate an apricot. (But don't crush a grape -- that one's taken.)

Peter

It would tie in well with the book launch:

http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9780593068274

I did nearly mention the Happy Mondays stuff, but wasn't sure whether it was their line or whether it had come from somewhere else originally.

With regards to Twitter specifically, that username is essentially being squatted as it hasn't been used in over 6 months. Since writing the original post, I have learned that Twitter is supposed to be deleting all accounts that haven't been used in 6+ months. They also do have a process for trademark holders to contact them about existing userids, so I'll pursue that avenue.

Twitter names specifically are used with an @. Since I already own the domain name, it'd be very confusing if I didn't have the twitter userid, especially since twitter clients will automatically convert domain names into twitter usernames.

Personally I don't think it has anything to do with poor versus money. I'm not rich, but I happen to have a trademark and did due diligence when registering the company name and domain name, such that no one else was using the combination of those two words on the net. I'd like to continue investing in the brand and eventually it might make perfect sense for someone to infringe purposefully. I've already had a few threats over the past year from a couple of whack jobs.

I also have no problem with companies buying names if those happen to be of the more generic variety and someone else is already using them for non-infringing purposes.

Incidentally, the "Twisting my melon" line can be attributed to Steve McQueen (circa 1965), likely where the Monday's got their inspiration. I covered this on my site back in 2006 when a few people asked. But while the company name is inspired by this saying, it's distinctively different. I've been using the domain since 2000, with the current company launched in early 2006.

The account has been sporadically used since at least March 2009, with breaks of many months some times. I don't see that as a good reason for you being able to nick it from the current owner.

It certainly isn't squatting in any way I understand it. My wife very, very rarely tweets. That doesn't mean that she doesn't use it or that someone who picks the same account name should be able to take it from her.



I wasn't using the word poor with respect to the bloke's financial wealth.



We are talking about a musician who probably likes the Happy Mondays, he isn't trying to tarnish your brand image.

There is also a facebook user, which is clearly a Happy Monday's fan, I assume you are going to try and take his url from him too ?

Doesn't look like squatting at all. Register @twistedmelonsw or something similar and be done with it. Leave this guy alone.

I have a shorter summary of all of this:

Shut up and stop whining about other people using a phrase that you co-opted from someone else to begin with.

+1

You may have done due diligence in registering your company name and domain name, but you don't appear to have done any due diligence in registering any trademarks. A search on the Canadian Intellectual Property Office's trademark database turns up 0 results for anything relating to "twisted melon", and nothing owned by you under either your personal name, or your business name. There is also no sign of anything registered with the USPTO, or the Intellectual Property Office in the UK (where the twitter account holder is).

So, according to Canadian trademark law, you have no proof of trademark ownership, and don't even have exclusive rights to "Twisted Melon" on a national level, never-mind on an international basis.

I do see, however, that "Twisted Melon" is trademarked by someone else in the UK.

Neither the US and Canada require registration for trademark enforcement or validity. I have been using Twisted Melon as a trademark since 2004, every logo or document page clearly labeled with a "tm" on at least the first instance. Registration process however, is under way in the US, the most important market.

And "Twisted Melon" is not necessarily the only trademark I had in mind when I posted the original topic.

In the UK, yes, Jay Grant trademarked Twisted Melon after I had started using it prominently on my website and after I wrote my blog post about the name and mark in 2006. I knew of his club DJing back in 2006.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I do value your opinions, but I did start this thread looking for feedback of a technical nature, not wanting to get into a philosophical nor moral debate.

Looks like Mr. Grant registered the domain twisted-melon.com in 2002 so regardless of whether he moved to protect (by legal means) himself from another "squatter" in 2006, he appears to have been using the name in some form or another since 2002.

Hmmm....

Edit:

I also see that you register your domain in 2000, but as you said you didn't start using it as your trademark until 2004.

I think you made a poor choice of name, you chose a phrase that in some form or other could be attributed to at least 2 famous people, one particularly in the UK (where Jay Grant resides).

I'm with the other guys on this, I'd be pissed if you came along and tried to take my twitter or Facebook page away. I think you need to chalk this up to experience tbh.

Right. Sure. The guy in Germany that got there just before me and grabbed @Julf hasn't used twitter since 2008. Still not freed up.

I'm surprised that everyone has focused on the moral issue instead of the legal or technical and that no one suggested the obvious (which is what I would always do anyway) of simply contacting whomever was currently using the name and ask if they'd be willing to sign it over to me.

I should have more clearly written the original post to emphasize that contacting the service provider (like Twitter) would be a last resort and that it wasn't what I intended to do with regards to any specific trademark. Like I said, I was hoping for some technical/legal background or experiences if anyone had them.

With respect to my company name being a poor choice, well that's not up for debate unfortunately. I like it and have been using it for over 10 years - not likely to stop using it. It isn't a phrase itself, but is inspired by a phrase - like so many other things. And I've been a Steve McQueen fan for over 30 years and a Happy Mondays fan for over 20.

WRT to Twitter specifically, Jamie seems like a super nice guy and after contacting him he offered to let me have the tm username. I'm trying to think of any way I might be able to use some drum samples in a future project which I can contract him to produce.

I was going to make the suggestion, if there was any further activity in the thread, but it appears I don't need to.


Yeah, this would have helped. The original post made it look like you were already planning on going with the nuclear option.


Perhaps a link on your website/blog, noting his willingness to give you the account, with the suggestion that if others have projects they can throw his way, it would be appreciated...