Tag: sue
A Few Notes On the POLITICO Situation
There’s a couple more things I think I should say about this whole nightmare…
First, I want to take this time to thank everybody for the outpouring of support that I’ve received up until now. I can’t say thank you enough.
Second, I think it’s important to note, as Ed Morrissey and Instapundit do, that POLITICO easily could have taken a much more civil and decent approach to this if they were really concerned about people confusing my site with theirs… I most certainly would have been open to working with them to figure something out. Now, instead, I’m going to have to wait for legal council to advise me how to go forward.
Third, there are some people saying that they want to buy up something + politico domains to stick it to POLITICO. Obviously I can’t control what you do but personally I don’t think its a great idea. They may very well come after you legally as well… Plus there already are many sites which use something + politico that prove the point anyway.
Fourth, there is a growing call to boycott POLITICO. I just want to make sure that everyone knows I didn’t come up with or push that idea. In my view I just want to put out the facts of what’s going on and let people react as they see fit… and I certainly don’t feel that anybody owes me anything or ought to react in any particular way to what’s happening to me.
Five, given that I don’t believe anybody owes me anything I feel like I should thank everybody again for caring about what’s happening to me and showing their support for me in whatever way they can. It has been extremely heartening.
Six, there have been some people who have expressed interest in donating money to help me defend myself against POLITICO. Again I really appreciate the support but right now I’m looking into pro bono representation (which I have some leads on right now) so I don’t feel right taking donations that might not go toward my defense. If I can’t get pro bono representation I will check out prices from other lawyers and give you guys a number to work towards.
I’ll bring you guys more updates on this situation as soon as they happen… again, thank you so much for your support
POLITICO Threatens to Sue Me
Today I received a cease and desist letter from Dow Lohnes PLLC on behalf of Capitol News Company LLC which is theĀ publisher of POLITICO. They claim that my domain name “thecollegepolitico.com” and its contents are “confusingly similar” to their trademarks. They then make absurd unfounded claims that I somehow specifically choose to use the term “politico” in my name to steal their readers and confuse them into thinking that POLITICO is a tiny conservative college opinion blog run by a single person.
They replay this same argument several times and then “demand” that I, within 10 days, stop all use of the label “The College Politico”, literally give them control of my domain name “thecollegepolitico.com”, and write them a letter declaring I will permanently cease and refrain from all future use of “The College Politico” or anything similar to POLITICO. Continue reading POLITICO Threatens to Sue Me