Earlier this week I received a letter from a law firm, at first I thought Kerry McCarthy may have finally followed through on her threat to sue me for calling her a disgraceful MP. But no it was in fact from Dow Lohnes, a Washington DC firm acting as counsel for Capital News Company.
Who, I hear you say, is the Capital News and what do they want with a British political blog.
Well they’re the publisher of the Politico newspaper and associated website, and it appears that they don’t like the fact that this site is called Tory Politico
As one would expect from a bunch of lawyers the letter rambles on somewhat, so I have included the most important bits bellow.
In what amounts to a cease and desist order, they say by incorporating the widely used word “politico” into the name of this blog, and its domain name, I will cause confusion for those seeking the Washington wonks trade paper.
So what do they want, well it pretty obvious really. They want me to stop using the word “politico” in the name of the blog and its domain, a change of logo oh and for me to transfer the domain name over to them.
For the record I have no intentions of ether changing the name of this blog or transferring the domain name to Capital News, though I do not know how long I will be able to hold out with the wolves at the door.
Though undoubtedly serious, I find it hilarious that this very expensive law firm try and backup their claims that a large proportion of sites traffic comes from the US by using Alexa.
For those who don’t know, statistics from Alexa have long been discredited and bear no resemblance to reality.
While I can understand why they are saying only 57% of visitors are from the UK this is a wholly false claim. According to Google Analytics, which has been tracking traffic since the site launched, 85% of readers are from the UK with only 5% coming from within the United States.
I have given the lawyer who sent me the letter my response and await with bated breath to hear what they have to say.
I am anticipating escalation on their part as I am refusing to comply with demands 1 and 3, so in the next couple of days I will be considering my option, this could involve launching a “Save Tory Politico” campaign and a fundraising operation to fund a defence.
Watch out Soho Politico.
Stay tuned for further developments.
A lawyer who thinks quoting Alexa traffic stats is credible for international traffic comparisons – yikes.
Mark Pack
4 Feb 10 at 09:40
Fight it.
banter.
Tory Bear
4 Feb 10 at 09:49
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tory_Politico: Latest blog post: Big media try to shutdown Tory Politico http://bit.ly/9D2916...
uberVU - social comments
4 Feb 10 at 09:55
That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen a lawyer try to do. Apart from banning reporting of Parliament, but even Carter Ruck were smart enough to do that.
I await more news with bated breath, and good luck!
Tom Williams
4 Feb 10 at 09:56
Absolutely ludicrous. I find it more credible they’re trying to use legal jiggery pokery to take the name off you for their own use in the “UK market”. Fight it all the way – I’m sure the rest of the UK political blogging community will back you.
A Very Public Sociologist
4 Feb 10 at 10:04
Utterly ridiculous – fight it.
Chantelle
4 Feb 10 at 10:06
Tell them to shove it up their ass
Old Holborn
4 Feb 10 at 10:07
I’m only a poor student so my means are limited, but I’ll happily fling a tenner in your direction if need be so that you can fight these wankers. I came here through Shane Greer’s blog, so hopefully it should get a fair amount of publicity.
Greg
4 Feb 10 at 10:13
The only time I looked at Alexa, it informed me that 85% of my traffic came from Portugal! (In fact it was well below 1%)
Who do these people think they are? McDonalds?
Heresiarch
4 Feb 10 at 10:14
I wonder why the font changes at random every few sentences. Proper professionalism, that.
Andrew
4 Feb 10 at 10:21
I suggest you take out a few more domain names with politico in the title and also register the main name as tory-politico.co.uk in addition to the .com and run your site under both the names. You are right to challenge it but just make certain your first line includes “I reserve all of my rights” and ask them for references to precedents under UK & European Law to support thier claim. Also a rfeverse claim thnat thier politico mark is confusing in the UK market, in contravention of the Representation of the Peoples Act and does not comply with the Design, Copyrights and Patents Act and that they should add USA to their title. In the UK Copyright is automatic and does not have to be applied for ! The rest of us shold flame the US website Best of Luck
Julian Bray
4 Feb 10 at 10:22
I think your defence lies in the area of copyrighting a word. You can’t apply the copyright to the word, just a brand name and logo. If you can prove that the word in question has common usage and not JUST associated with that politico site then you have a case. Politico is a word derived from the Greek word for politician. It is not a brand invented word like Google or ebay. Trying to stop you using that word is like The Times newspaper stopping other media outlets using the word news. Tell Politico to get better lawyers.
Paul
4 Feb 10 at 10:22
KRO backs Tory Politico!
KeepRightOnline
4 Feb 10 at 10:26
Refer them to the reply given in the case of Arkell vs Pressdram.
They don’t have a leg to stand on!
Jackart
4 Feb 10 at 10:33
What utter wankers.
Best of luck with fighting it.
sim-o
4 Feb 10 at 10:33
I’d just like to thank everyone for their words of support, and to assure you all that i will not be giving in.
Jason Brown
4 Feb 10 at 10:34
One small point your domain name is Tory-Politico but you use just politico in the body copy and titles. Revert back to Tory-politico, including the hyphen and you should be OK! I’m waiting for a tug over BRAYS DUCKHOUSE BLOG either from a nose troughing MP or a Duck farmer.
Julian Bray
4 Feb 10 at 10:37
Tell them to go forth. mulitply and terminate.
Julian Bray’s suggestion is inspired.
Tory Aardvark
4 Feb 10 at 10:38
check netnames
politicowankers.com
INTERNATIONAL
available
Old Holborn
4 Feb 10 at 10:46
Your new friends have form:
Politico to College Politico: Give Us Your Domain or We Will Sue You 9/15/2009
http://patterico.com/2009/09/15/politico-to-college-poliitico-give-us-your-domain-or-we-will-sue-you/
Dave
4 Feb 10 at 10:48
Dear Capital News Company,
Fuck you.
Cheers!
Tory Politico.
Gareth
4 Feb 10 at 10:49
You’re missing a wide-open goal here. Why not write back politely, threatening to notify Dow Jones & Company that these jokers at Dow Lohnes are masquerading under a name which is clearly intended to deceive? I bet that News Corporation (owners of Dow Jones) have substantially deeper pockets than Capital News. Their contention is no more or less absurd than that.
Albert M. Bankment
4 Feb 10 at 10:50
I really hope you can nail this on the head and stop them from abusing you through their bullying tactics.
It might have been at least better form for reps of the ‘P…..’ (don’t want to use the word in case i get sued too
) to have contacted you first, instead of going all mediaeval.
Really says a lot about how American businesses operate.
Maybe Italy should sue the country for the continued use of the word ‘America’ without royalties paid?
Thoughts are with you and hope it works out OK.
Ivor Whitten
4 Feb 10 at 10:50
Alternatively, quote Arkell v. Pressdram (1971) at them!
Albert M. Bankment
4 Feb 10 at 10:52
I’ll contribute a tenner if they take this further!
Posh Tory
4 Feb 10 at 10:52
As Iain Dale has pointed out, he ran businesses with the name Politico for several years, and even considered knocking them for copying when they started up.
Alan Douglas
Alan Douglas
4 Feb 10 at 11:02
[...] nastygram from lawyers acting for a major US Political news site, Politico.com, which gives them ten days to shut down their blog and turn over the domain name to Politico on the utterly spurious grounds that it claims that the [...]
Liberal Conspiracy » US Media giant sicks lawyers on Tory Blogger over domain name
4 Feb 10 at 11:07
SourceWatch – The Politico
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Politico
Dave
4 Feb 10 at 11:09
Maybe they’re made more twitchy about the coincidence your masthead looks a bit like their print edition’s one. Even so, this is very silly – good luck with it.
Anyhoo – their name might hold a clue to what you should do with the paper they’ve sent you – Politico.com is an anagram of ‘comic loo tip’
john
4 Feb 10 at 11:10
Even though your a Tory. This is stupid crap, Fight it.
What they going to do, get you extradited? rofl.
James Cowley
4 Feb 10 at 11:12
rather than everyone donating £10, it might be more effective – and a lot more fun – for everyone to spend £10 registering a domain name with Politico in, and creating a site with political comment (hint – point it at your existing political blog).
it will be expensive for them to send 100s of lawyers letters…
botogol
4 Feb 10 at 11:14
oooops, sorry. My anger got the better of me. Duff information in previous post!! Bin it
Albert M. Bankment
4 Feb 10 at 11:24
What is this “presumably” a lot of traffic comes from the US? Jezus is that as scientific as they can manage?
For the record my “hit” on your site has just bounced through my company’s Dublin-based internet proxy, although I’m sat in rural Berkshire.
Given that you are now the 120923rd “presumed” most visited website in the US, then they must be willing to settle for a generous amount. Call it a round $10million and be done.
Good luck.
JR Hartley
4 Feb 10 at 11:27
Some “web tracking” systems track all AOL users through a hub in Virginia. So UK AOL users might be mistakenly identified as US.
Stand firm!
Dave Lowry
4 Feb 10 at 11:31
Just picked this up on Iain Dale.
Fight it and resist and point out the ‘Politico’ is not trademarked and has been used before by others.
ukipwebmaster
4 Feb 10 at 11:33
“Results 1 – 10 of about 48,900,000 for politico” …And yours isn’t even on the front page. Are they going to send all of those people ‘cease and desist’ letters? Because I imagine a pretty high proportion of those sites feature political news! Come to that, are they also going to sue every Spanish and Italian politician, seeing as ‘politico’ is only the direct translation of the word ‘politician’ into those languages?
Steph Ashley
4 Feb 10 at 11:55
Point of information:
When did you start blogging as Tory Politico?
I see the Americans on their Wikipedia site list 27 January 2007 as their foundation date.
BTW I’ve blogged my support here. Expect to see the word Politico used a lot in headlines for the next wee while
Stephen Glenn
4 Feb 10 at 11:56
Stuff and nonsense, but watch the US dispute resolution process and check what “bad faith” means – sometimes includes offering them yourdomain for say £5k and creating a lot of similar domains (I think).The process can be random.
I’m not sure on the US position on trademarking generic words:
“politico noun (politicos or politicoes) colloq, usually derog a politician or someone who is keen on politics.
ETYMOLOGY: 17c: Italian or Spanish.”
(Chambers)
Matt
4 Feb 10 at 11:56
Anything I can do to help and all that.
Thomas Byrne
4 Feb 10 at 12:30
I have a lovely new (probably temporary) blog called “Politicon”: http://politicopoliticopolitico.blogspot.com/
Steve Green
4 Feb 10 at 12:32
Tossers. You can’t copyright a word!
Fight it.
Alex
4 Feb 10 at 12:46
http://thecollegepolitico.com/
which was mentioned earlier up the thread as also having been threatened by Politico, is still going under its original name.
My suggestion – get in touch with them and ask them what happened.
Prima Facie, since College Politico is US-focused, Politico would have had a much stronger claim against them.
Since Politico does not have any discernible interest in British politics, the chances of confusion between that site and yours would appear slim.
Heresiarch
4 Feb 10 at 12:57
>Tossers. You can’t copyright a word!
>Fight it.
a) It’s trademark not copyright.
b) You can trademark a word, or rather a distinctive stylised image of a word.
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77569603
“Color(s) Claimed: The color(s) red is/are claimed as a feature of the mark.
Description of Mark: The mark consists of stylized capital letters “POLITICO” in the color red.”
Matt
4 Feb 10 at 13:21
Shit, my domain includes the words “Labour” “of” and “Love” hope no-one comes after me! They should take your site down for plagiarism and crappiness and failure to deliver promised Harry Cole “anal-ysis” but never but NEVER over this legalism.
Chris Paul
4 Feb 10 at 13:39
When is a Blogger not a Blogger?…
Isn’t it interesting how the broadening of the communication channel causes gatekeepers of all stripes (in this case, the Tory press office) to tie themselves into knots trying to define who is “media” and who isn’t? Incidentally, I think they…
One Man and His Blog
4 Feb 10 at 13:39
Just found this via ConHome. I was also going to suggest the Arkell v Pressdram approach – here’s an explanatory link for anyone unfamiliar. I’m linking you to my site in solidarity.
Cazzy Jones
4 Feb 10 at 13:41
Arkell v Pressdram has been expressly suggested three times in this thread. I’m afraid the joke’s been done already.
Also, don’t do it, their next option is likely to be a UDRP action and they look poorly on swearing at pursuers. Just stay civil and talk about how there’s no chance of confusion, no bad faith registration or use and you have a valid right to the domain name and you should be ok.
Stephen
4 Feb 10 at 13:50
Dear Tory Politico,
The dictionary definition is:
politico
• noun (pl. politicos) informal, chiefly derogatory a politician or person with strong political views.
Your blog expresses your “political views” ergo the name you have given it is entirely in keeping with the Oxford English dictionary definition.
The case for the defence rests m’lud
good luck my friend
Chris
Chris Neal
4 Feb 10 at 13:55
Politico- A politico or pol is a person involved in politics. The word comes from the Greek languageπολιτικός, where it means “politician”. In the modern usage it refers to people involved in political behavior of any sort. For instance, the term is often used to describe people who have overly political viewpoints or who spend considerable time “playing politics” within an organization.
From Italian or from Spanish político, both from Latin polīticus, political.
Yah boo to them over there!
True_Belle
4 Feb 10 at 14:20
I think their lawyers have done a cut-and-paste job from their bullying of the “La Política” website – notice the Spanish accent left on ‘I’ in the spelling of ‘Politico’ in demand 1. And note that the follow-up to that says that ‘Politico’ was a “weekly online newsletter devoted to Latino politics” launched in 2000.
Tell them to go stick their head in a pig. They reused the name; so can everyone, since it’s a common word in used for 380 years, according to the OED.
Barney
4 Feb 10 at 14:53
Fight back. THe UK blogging community stands with you across party lines. Bloggers are writing about this en mass. At the end of the day it’s politico who will have egg on their face. Shame on publisher Fred Ryan.
Hermeneuticals
4 Feb 10 at 14:54
I’m going to be in terrible trouble with the People’s Republic of China if this sort of thing is allowed to stand. That’s not good.
Get a lawyer before you make any more contact. Being a reasonable human being will not cut it with these people.
Alix
4 Feb 10 at 14:58
It’s your own damn fault for not calling it something more generic. Like McTory, for example
Tim Ireland
4 Feb 10 at 14:59
Just tell them that you will settle amicably for 1 million GBP.
Failing that, heres another tenner to fight them. Oo Argh!
AMQ
4 Feb 10 at 15:06
Shocking. Solidarity, comrade. Or whatever it is you lot say in these circumstances.
Dave Osler
4 Feb 10 at 15:25
I always thought “politico” was a generic name for somebody interested in or active in politics. Trying to copyright the word – which it would seem they are trying to do – would be like my local shop Edward the Baker trying to copyright the word “baker” and then threatening any other shop that used the word “baker”. This is ridiculous. The word is in widespread use to describe what you, I and tens of thousands of others do for a hobby or profession. I can’t see that they have a leg to stand on – though obviously they have plenty of money to stand on.
rupert matthews
4 Feb 10 at 15:49
Just ignore them and carry on. Seems to work for everyone else they’ve threatened. I took a look through at some of the other threats they made and they’re all still up and running from what I can see.
i.e. http://thecollegepolitico.com
It would be terrible if someone was to visit your site and come away with a bad impressions of Capitol News.
My blog is my name. I don’t think anyone has a trade mark for it yet. Thinking of changing my name to Coca-Cola though.
Why don’t you contact a trade mark attorney. They’ll get some good publicity and you’ll get some good quality (free hopefully) advice. My ex was a trademark attorney. She often had a free initial consultation.
Kevin Monk
4 Feb 10 at 16:11
Why not contact the Chief Editor of Politico and tell him what a great guy you think he is!
http://www.politico.com/reporters/JohnFHarris.html
Kevin Monk
4 Feb 10 at 16:17
cunts
Idle Pen Pusher
4 Feb 10 at 16:37
Raving loony Green promises another tenner
Gràisg
4 Feb 10 at 16:39
I’ve not read all the comments, but as a confirmed leftie and certainly not a Tory, this issue crosses the political spectrum. It’d be great if you also got some support from left-wing blogs and sites, if you have to fight this.
Please feel free to use my email address to keep me informed.
paul the postie
4 Feb 10 at 16:48
Looking at the US trademark site, there are a number of “politicos” registered. They only have money, not a leg to stand on.
Search here:
http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/process/search/
Politico was registered 12th Dec 2006. It is not registered in the UK.
Interestingly, Iain Dale has registered the work Politico’s in the UK, and I bet you’d have no problems registering “Tory Politico”. It’s £170.
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm/t-os/t-os-forms/tm3-introduction/tm3-servicesfees.htm
resident leftie
4 Feb 10 at 16:57
> a) It’s trademark not copyright.
> b) You can trademark a word, or rather a distinctive stylised image of a word.
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77569603
“Color(s) Claimed: The color(s) red is/are claimed as a feature of the mark.
Description of Mark: The mark consists of stylized
Reply:
Then it is no longer a word but a trademark, logo or brand. Their complaint is use of the word – which they didn’t invent and which pertains to the political nature of the blog
capital letters “POLITICO” in the color red.”
Paul
4 Feb 10 at 17:06
http://cambriapolitico.com/
Iain Dale seems to be your prime defence – using in context before this ghastly shower came along.
Had a similar argument with Americans years ago – was able to call one of the Brontes in aid, that shut them up
idiots trying it on
4 Feb 10 at 17:25
[...] [...]
The Oxford Student - Official Student Newspaper
4 Feb 10 at 19:15
From the US here and I’d say not to pay attention to the cease and desist letter. The US Politico has no chance of winning this. You’re fine.
Read this article about the tory-politoco v. politico, quite humorous. http://wonkette.com/413537/stupid-politico-threatning-to-sue-some-british-dudes-news-site#more-413537
Tom
4 Feb 10 at 20:30
I hope you win this one. I found out about the situation from Wonkette.com and then proceeded to your site to read what you had to say. Although now I feel bad that I’m contributing to the “significant portion” of US readers.
Yankee Josh
4 Feb 10 at 20:59
[...] Tory Politico has received a Nasty-O-Gram from an organisation calling themselves Politico… [...]
Politico vs Tory Politico | Sim-O
4 Feb 10 at 21:51
Your attorney has advised you to inform them that they are, being the party of the blah blah blah, encouraged to get bent. With due haste and forthwith and all deliberate speed and the like.
American
4 Feb 10 at 22:12
i didn’t know dictionary words could have a copyright. forthwith any use of the word ‘the’ shall result in royalties to me.
rob
4 Feb 10 at 22:22
I’ll be following your progress – good luck!
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4 Feb 10 at 22:25
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kiramatali shah
5 Feb 10 at 05:15
What unadulterated bullshit. (that’s what the cowboys–and lawyers–step in out here in Idaho when they’re not paying attention).
You got a big boost from the American (very irreverent)political commentary website: Wonkette.com
Here’s an excerpt from the Wonkette.com coverage…. (ending with THEIR suggestion and a few words of suppport):
“An English hobbit from The Shiringhamtondovershire, presumably, runs a website called TORY POLITICO about his precious cricket matches and politics and fried Mars bars. Now he’s being threatened by the POLITICO’s parent company’s contracted lawyers! ”
. . . . “Poor hobbit! Just reply “Hey Politico get fucked by Dick Cheney s’more” and be done with it. ”
Read more at Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/413537/stupid-politico-threatning-to-sue-some-british-dudes-news-site#more-413537#ixzz0edbr05Vc
Bill in Boise (Idaho)
5 Feb 10 at 05:52
Much of the law related to the web is still untested. There is in addition the geographies over which content travels (the complexity of data crossing many jurisdictions has yet to be codified if indeed that is ever possible). Their arguments are very shaky and this is something to completely ignore.
Tom Xavier
5 Feb 10 at 09:48
Your article was most tweeted by Politics experts in the Twitterverse…
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Most Tweeted Articles by Politics Experts: MrTweet
5 Feb 10 at 10:52
Wretched creatures. Solidarity, Politico.
BenSix
5 Feb 10 at 12:16
What a bunch of American bastards. Tell them to piss off.
RantinRab
5 Feb 10 at 12:52
Utter shits, best of luck fighting them and do keep us posted on anything we can do.
Daniel Hoffmann-Gill
5 Feb 10 at 12:56
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politico
A politico or pol is a person involved in politics. The word comes from the Greek languageπολιτικός, where it means “politician”. In the modern usage it refers to people involved in political behavior of any sort. For instance, the term is often used to describe people who have overly political viewpoints or who spend considerable time “playing politics” within an organization.
The Politico was only founded in 2007, before which the term “politico” was in widespread use amongst political commentators.
Then there’s the publishing company Iain Dale founded called Politicos.
Do a Google blog search for “politico” for 2006 (the year before they started using the name) and there are over 121k results showing that the word was already in widespread use before they adopted it.
Personally I’d tell them to f**k off.
wonkotsane
5 Feb 10 at 14:27
Good Luck to you, i do wish the US would keep their sodding noses out of the UK, we are an independent country, not one of their states (Which sometimes it is difficult to tell) so they can go and FECK OFF.
Nicola Clubb
6 Feb 10 at 08:19
Ignore the twunts.
tennerpants
6 Feb 10 at 23:44
A likely defense to “the likelihood of causing confusion” is that the normal readers of Politico are already confused and as such could be not be any further confused by reading a British blog site.
I would be inclined to ask them to prove their case about how confused their readers are.
Rasmuncher
11 Feb 10 at 23:59
[...] and start referring to as “Politico” immediately, just to make Jim VandeHei unhappy, they have more, including an image copy of the salient part of the [...]
‘Politico’ Makes Obscure ‘Tory Politico’ Blog Famous By Suing It - www. netai.net - deep web news radio
12 Feb 10 at 09:38
you go, Tory-Politico! Politico is a word, not a trademark. Are they going to tell everybody to stop using “operative” next?
Sheesh.
Likari
12 Feb 10 at 16:17
Consider changing your name to:
Tory Politico Memoranda or TPM for short…
Anyway, good luck against the scoundrels!
JTG
12 Feb 10 at 17:44
As someone on the US side, I intend to bookmark Tory Politico, and I’ll label it just Politico! Then maybe I’ll get my own cease-and-desist letter, which I’ll frame and hang on my wall.
To quote the headline from a very good blog over here (www.balloon-juice.com) on this kerfuffle, “And, as a bonus, they are also corporate bullies.” The only way to respond to bullies is to stand up to them.
Patience
12 Feb 10 at 17:46
Bravo to you for not caving in to their bullying tactics! I live in Los Angeles and heard about your site through the Huffington Post blog. An upside to this situation is that thousands of people who never knew about your site have been introduced to it.
caroline
12 Feb 10 at 18:20
[...] Jason Brown at Tory Politico: Earlier this week I received a letter from a law firm, at first I thought Kerry McCarthy may have finally followed through on her threat to sue me for calling her a disgraceful MP. But no it was in fact from Dow Lohnes, a Washington DC firm acting as counsel for Capital News Company. [...]
Around The Sphere Politico « Around The Sphere
12 Feb 10 at 18:33
another woolly liberal come to pledge support, via European Tribune.
Best of luck
Helen
12 Feb 10 at 18:44
An absurd case. It’s quite obvious that they were hoping to bully and/or scare you into complying. Anyway, you’re news now. I found you on Huffington Post through a Daily Kos blog.
'Politico' Makes Obscure 'Tory Politico' Blog Famous By Suing It
12 Feb 10 at 19:52
From the States – Tell them to go p!ss off!
I also like the idea from Julian Bray @ 4 Feb 10 at 10:22 to file a counterclaim against them for using “Politco” in *their* name.
Oh, wait! You’re using “.com” in your name, just like me. Counsel!
Boomer Redneque
14 Feb 10 at 01:58