Hey! That's My Creative Title!
October 27, 2010 10:03 AM Subscribe
Internet-etiquette-filter: So I have an anonymous blog that has been around for 3 years now with a very distinctive name. I just got a Google alert on the name that someone has started a new blog on Blogger (where I have the name already since I used to host with Blogger) with the exact name of my blog. Do I be a bitch about this and tell her to find a new name or do I just chill and let us peacefully coexist?
I have a decent amount of readers (99 subscribers through Google reader and I don't know how many who get me via email, etc). There is at least one person who hits on my blog by searching for the exact title per day. It's pretty well known in the community that I post in.
I'm fairly certain that this person didn't know of my blog ahead of time and thought up the same name. That being said, I really don't want people to get confused, especially since she is writing about essentially the same topic.
I've been thinking about transferring the blog to a domain for it with an eye toward maybe marketing it in the future.
Do I send her an email and nicely point out that I have been using the same name so go find a new one? What is the etiquette here?
I have a decent amount of readers (99 subscribers through Google reader and I don't know how many who get me via email, etc). There is at least one person who hits on my blog by searching for the exact title per day. It's pretty well known in the community that I post in.
I'm fairly certain that this person didn't know of my blog ahead of time and thought up the same name. That being said, I really don't want people to get confused, especially since she is writing about essentially the same topic.
I've been thinking about transferring the blog to a domain for it with an eye toward maybe marketing it in the future.
Do I send her an email and nicely point out that I have been using the same name so go find a new one? What is the etiquette here?
Best answer: This is a worse situation for her than it is for you, since your established blog will make it hard for people to find her newly-started one. I would contact her and put it in those terms - don't think of it as "being a bitch", because you're doing her a favor by helping her readers find her and not you.
posted by pocams at 10:10 AM on October 27, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by pocams at 10:10 AM on October 27, 2010 [4 favorites]
Grab the domain name asap, though, just in case she doesn't want to give it up.
I waited on grabbing the .com domain name for my blog-with-a-distinctive-name-at-a-blogging-platform-dot-com, and it got grabbed by someone who, though he isn't using it, refused sell it to me "because he hopes one day it will become a famous word".
posted by pseudostrabismus at 10:10 AM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
I waited on grabbing the .com domain name for my blog-with-a-distinctive-name-at-a-blogging-platform-dot-com, and it got grabbed by someone who, though he isn't using it, refused sell it to me "because he hopes one day it will become a famous word".
posted by pseudostrabismus at 10:10 AM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
This sort of thing always kills me.
Grab the domain name and use a redirect to your current blog home. You have no more right to the exclusive use of the name anywhere else as I do. In order to have this you'd need to TM the name and even then if it's remotely descriptive you'd still have a challenge on your hands.
My question is how can they have started a blog with the same name on Blogger if you already have the name there?
There is a very good chance that the person who just set up this new blog will post once and never be heard from again. I wouldn't sweat it. But I'm just that way.
posted by FlamingBore at 10:19 AM on October 27, 2010
Grab the domain name and use a redirect to your current blog home. You have no more right to the exclusive use of the name anywhere else as I do. In order to have this you'd need to TM the name and even then if it's remotely descriptive you'd still have a challenge on your hands.
My question is how can they have started a blog with the same name on Blogger if you already have the name there?
There is a very good chance that the person who just set up this new blog will post once and never be heard from again. I wouldn't sweat it. But I'm just that way.
posted by FlamingBore at 10:19 AM on October 27, 2010
My question is how can they have started a blog with the same name on Blogger if you already have the name there?
My guess is the title is the same, but the URL is not.
posted by deezil at 10:24 AM on October 27, 2010
My guess is the title is the same, but the URL is not.
posted by deezil at 10:24 AM on October 27, 2010
Best answer: Do I be a bitch about this and tell her to find a new name or do I just chill and let us peacefully coexist?
There's a middle ground that you might consider: Just shoot her a friendly email and let her know about your blog and how long you've been using the name. She is likely to appreciate the info and change it on her own.
posted by spilon at 10:49 AM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
There's a middle ground that you might consider: Just shoot her a friendly email and let her know about your blog and how long you've been using the name. She is likely to appreciate the info and change it on her own.
posted by spilon at 10:49 AM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
Second just a friendly email to inform her of the situation. If I was in her situation, I would appreciate knowing about your site, and would probably want to change my title before I went too far with it. Unless of course she feels very strongly that that is the only/perfect title for her work, regardless of the confusion it might cause, in which case I say she has every right to keep on using it and competing with you for the name recognition. It is not that difficult to find the website you are looking for these days, even if there are two with the same title.
Also agree now would be a good time to grab the domain if you feel that strongly about it. In fact I would say the instant the thought (of possibly "transferring the blog to a domain for it with an eye toward maybe marketing it in the future") popped into your head was the right time to do so. Domains are cheap, getting them back from other people is a headache.
posted by brightghost at 11:09 AM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
Also agree now would be a good time to grab the domain if you feel that strongly about it. In fact I would say the instant the thought (of possibly "transferring the blog to a domain for it with an eye toward maybe marketing it in the future") popped into your head was the right time to do so. Domains are cheap, getting them back from other people is a headache.
posted by brightghost at 11:09 AM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
Titles aren't subject to copyright, and I imagine blog names would be similar. So you have no grounds to make her change, all you can do is play nice and make her want to.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:12 AM on October 27, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 11:12 AM on October 27, 2010 [2 favorites]
Best answer: If you care enough to grab the domain, be sure to do it before contacting this other blogger person, because otherwise who knows, maybe you procrastinate on registering the domain and you just gave this person the heads up to beat you to the punch.
posted by juv3nal at 11:21 AM on October 27, 2010
posted by juv3nal at 11:21 AM on October 27, 2010
This is a worse situation for her than it is for you
You'd think this but my wife got bumped off google when another academic swiped her html for their own site and left all the original keyword info in.
It persisted until the person eventually fixed the html.
The mysteries of google SEO...
posted by srboisvert at 12:35 PM on October 27, 2010
You'd think this but my wife got bumped off google when another academic swiped her html for their own site and left all the original keyword info in.
It persisted until the person eventually fixed the html.
The mysteries of google SEO...
posted by srboisvert at 12:35 PM on October 27, 2010
You have no more right to the exclusive use of the name anywhere else as I do. In order to have this you'd need to TM the name and even then if it's remotely descriptive you'd still have a challenge on your hands.
This isn't really true. There are common law rights on the federal and state levels for unregistered trademarks. Not saying this would qualify or that you would win an infringement suit, but it's not true that you have to register a mark to have rights.
posted by elpea at 2:19 PM on October 27, 2010
This isn't really true. There are common law rights on the federal and state levels for unregistered trademarks. Not saying this would qualify or that you would win an infringement suit, but it's not true that you have to register a mark to have rights.
posted by elpea at 2:19 PM on October 27, 2010
With all of the contact you are making, you might not be nearly as anonymous as you think.
Just sayin'.
posted by geekyguy at 3:09 PM on October 27, 2010
Just sayin'.
posted by geekyguy at 3:09 PM on October 27, 2010
Agreeing with the "get the domain name" and "nice letter" folks.
But here are a couple things that may or may not be relevant...
Yours is an anonymous blog. Could this be an attempt to out you? (If, for example you write provocative, controversial or critical things on your blog.)
Registering a domain name will de-anonymize you to a certain extent.
What, if anything, has this person posted on their blog? It's not unheard of for unscrupulous people to take a similar blog name, scrape the content from your blog (and others), place some ads on the page in an effort to try to make a little money. You'd be surprised how small a blog can be to be a victim of this. The good news is that Google is pretty good about dealing with offenders.
posted by Ookseer at 3:49 PM on October 27, 2010
But here are a couple things that may or may not be relevant...
Yours is an anonymous blog. Could this be an attempt to out you? (If, for example you write provocative, controversial or critical things on your blog.)
Registering a domain name will de-anonymize you to a certain extent.
What, if anything, has this person posted on their blog? It's not unheard of for unscrupulous people to take a similar blog name, scrape the content from your blog (and others), place some ads on the page in an effort to try to make a little money. You'd be surprised how small a blog can be to be a victim of this. The good news is that Google is pretty good about dealing with offenders.
posted by Ookseer at 3:49 PM on October 27, 2010
This isn't really true. There are common law rights on the federal and state levels for unregistered trademarks. Not saying this would qualify or that you would win an infringement suit, but it's not true that you have to register a mark to have rights.
Good luck defending any mark when it isn't registered when the mark is neither famous, nor used to conduct "trade". Blogs, while there may be some revenue earned from the endeavor, it's harder to claim such unless it's actively publicized and the advent of the new blog (which may not have a confusingly similar URL, just a "name") is likely to cause consumer confusion.
posted by FlamingBore at 4:06 PM on October 27, 2010
Good luck defending any mark when it isn't registered when the mark is neither famous, nor used to conduct "trade". Blogs, while there may be some revenue earned from the endeavor, it's harder to claim such unless it's actively publicized and the advent of the new blog (which may not have a confusingly similar URL, just a "name") is likely to cause consumer confusion.
posted by FlamingBore at 4:06 PM on October 27, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by antgly at 10:05 AM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]