When the Hive Social social media application popped up on my iPhone a few months back, I actually thought it was one of our frontends because it was so similar to our project.
Stop HIVE SOCIAL, this is your official Cease and Desist request Letter!" πΏ
Luckily I didn't try to log in to HIVE Social with my HIVE keys or anything, that could have been detrimental, but who knows how many people may have already fallen victim to that mistake. HIVE SOCIAL probably already has tons of our user's keys on their server by now, if you can make a mistake on the web someone will surely find a way. But that is neither here nor there and that isn't even the reason for this post, the real reason is that HIVE Social is stealing our Brand name and likeness in the same Social Media industry that we claimed first.
Where there is controversy, there's always Elon Musk!
Don't worry, Elon didn't do anything wrong, he simply brought a lot of attention to HIVE Social after his Tweet response "lmao" in regard to a question "What the f--- is hive, weren't we all hot on mastodon like two seconds ago?" Source:BusinessInsider.com Elon laughed off HIVE Social as real competition because he probably understands that they are already about to be squished by us shortly if we all decide to do something about it. Heck it's just a measly student behind HIVE Social, he obviously doesn't know business law, so it's probably time to teach him a lesson.
In America, there are trademark laws, and business laws and the law states that a company canβt use another company or entity's name or likeness and go into business in the same industry with a similar name. More specifically the trademark law states that it is unlawful for a business to use a trademark (e.g., a slogan, a logo, a name) in connection with a good or service if that use is confusingly similar to another business's use of a trademark. So in my eyes, HIVE Social is breaking this law and has opened itself up to a lawsuit. It's the same thing as if a company decided to start selling Cola and tried to name the company Coke Soda to compete with Coke Cola, it's not going to happen. This is a cut-and-dry case, and I think if there are any lawyers reading this you should launch your own lawsuit before I decide to launch one myself.
Can 2 brands have the same name?
Yes, two brands can in fact have the same name under certain requirements without constituting trademark infringement, however, to determine which party is the rightful owner of the name the two brands canβt be in the same industry or geographic location. As for geographic location, both Hive (our HIVE Blockchain) and HIVE SOCIAL are on the internet so that wonβt do for differentiating the two, so all that's left is the industry? Our industry is Social Media, which is the same as HIVE SOCIAL, the only difference is we use high-tech blockchain decentralization technology, and we came before HIVE Social, so it looks like their company may be infringing on our HIVE Blockchain Social Media platforms rights, therefore we can sue them, order a cease and desist to their company if we want, maybe force them to use put a disclaimer pointing to our site, or get them to settle with us and work together with us. We have leverage here, so it is our duty to use it, and would
Back when our HIVE was born, we were actually accused of stealing another HIVE Blockchains name, and they ordered a cease and desist on us, however, somehow this seemed to not go anywhere, probably because their lawyers realized that we were in two different industries, and it was ok for two brands. The other HIVE blockchain is in the Bitcoin Mining industry, they even have a stock, and we are in the social media industry, so we are easily differentiated.
Honestly I donβt plan on Suing HIVE Social, but this post is just a rant about the possibility.
Iβm not saying I wonβt sue them, and there is a good chance I may decide to sue them for a million dollars or more, but I still need to do my due diligence before deciding. My hope for making this post would be to give some bigger developers or lawyers here the idea to sue them.
My neighbor is a Lawyer, so I might run this case by him and see what he thinks. If anything I can definitely get him to send out some scary letters, that might be enough to get some kind of settlement. Maybe we could get them to work with us and adopt our technology to their platform in some kind of profit-sharing deal, but it might just be a good way to get some publicity for HIVE at the very least.
So next year after the holidays would seem like a good time to open a lawsuit against HIVE Social. If you all think we should open a class action lawsuit against them and you want to join in with me on this cause, then leave a comment below. If you are a lawyer, which I am not, and you have any reasons why I may be totally wrong and wasting my time with this lawsuit, your input is also very welcome. It would be a shame to let this opportunity slip by. If we don't dispute the brand name then they may be able to claim it for their own, or even sue us later in the long run. Ever since Elon's Tweet the other HIVE has already gained over a million new subscribers, so they are getting more powerful every second we wait. Hopefully, someone out there will notice this & decide to help us out and help turn this travesty into treasure.
I'm not a lawyer sadly, but I'm definitely in full support of this. Hopefully, others that can help will come on board and do the needful. One thing I'm sure of, we can take this opportunity and use it to our advantage.
Yeah, the whole thing doesn't seem legal, luckily the law is there, now what we need next is for a judge to decide. lol
It is a bit annoying to see the same name in the same niche... I have no idea about this "lawyerish" stuff, but I know that we have some Hivers who have a lot of experience in that field... So, I will tag two guys who could take a look at this... @apshamilton and @brianoflondon!
I have picked this post on behalf of the @OurPick project which will be highlighted in the next post!
Andrew would speak with more authority but my understanding is that partly because Hive is a common word and also because there's been no formal registration of a trademark, there's not much to sue over here.
As @coininstant points out, the name collision we had with Hive Blockchain (a public company in Canada) left them wondering where to even send a cease and desist letter too.
Hive Social the app are in a worse position than we are with the name collision. I would probably be enough to mean they'd have a tough time raising VC money and they'd have no hope of acting against our decentralised system.
Besides which, Hive Social is just a couple of people with no significant funding so I'd rather keep our focus on suing where the money is... Meta and Google as @apshamilton and I continue to do.
We're here for your rants. There's quite a few Hive named apps and such out there.
That's quite dangerous for someone who doesn't really know more about hive. Their keys might be stolen as you said but yeah, it's hard to determine who is the rightful owner of this brand name. Except for cola which I think already registered .
I don't think you necessarily need to trademark a name to claim ownership if you can show that you have been using it for a period of time prior to the date when it becomes in question. If you do not register your trademark, you will have legal rights only within the geographic areas where you operate.
!BEER
Can a blockchain hold a trademark?
Sure, a blockchain could hold a trademark, a DAO would probably be the best agent for that. Ethereum has many trademarks. The Foundation name, the terms Ethereum Switzerland, Ethereum Asia, the Foundation logo and all related names, logos, product and service names, designs and slogans are trademarks of the Foundation or its affiliates or licensors. You must not use such marks without the prior written permission of the Foundation.
https://trademarks.justia.com/866/34/ethereum-86634529.html
That's a "foundation" not a blockchain.
You're right, I don't think a blockchain actually can because it's just a computer code running on a bunch of nodes.
interesting and important information, thank you very much for sharing
thank you so much for sharing , have a nice day
The wonderful thing about decentralization is that there is no central entity to sue... unlike upstart copy-cat social media companies.
If the dao hires an agent to act I don't see why it wouldn't have the same powers as a corporation.
oh wow! i wonder if that person who started that DOES know now or even before, but just went ahead and started anyway. pretty dirty IMO. I think it would be a good to contact them and see what their response would be..
Great information posting
Who will lead the lawsuit?
Oh not me, I found out after posting this that the other Hive Social had registered the year before we were born from the hard fork, so it appears we don't have a case after all.
Alright. Hopefully, we find a way to go above them
Did someone actually sued them at the end?
Nope after doing some investigation, it turns out that HIVE Social had incorporated the name with filings a little over 6 months before our HIVE was even born. It could even be said that we copied them, but I'm not sure it matters since we are a blockchain, not company. Someone could try to sue anyway, but I won't waste time and money on it after the discovery. It was good I made this post because the facts came in and it lead me to the decision to just let this go and move on. Honestly, I don't care if some other app named hive is a social media free-speech competitor, we are who we are and we'll be what we'll be. Were either going to make it or not, it looks like we are not winning the battle though because the way we have built our empire the law isn't even on our side.
Law is the enemy of most freespeech media...
Law was created to protect free speech though.
Yeah and government is your friend.
Bah! it will be better not to disturb the hornet's nest. Because the shot can easily backfire on us. Since apparently HiveSocial.App already existed and has been available right back from Oct 18, 2019.
In what the responsible for "our Hive" really have to focus on, is in developing authentic, more serious and more effective marketing campaigns to have a greater global reach and not go around wasting time just talking only to each other. Much less to try sue anyone.
That the responsible for HiveSocial App are only three people and look how well they have done in getting free advertising, marketing and promotion without much effort.
And by the way, there are and have been many other Hives before us who might also try to sue us if we get too silly with this issue.
Good investigating, that was going to be my next step to see exactly when HIVE social began. Since I only saw their app appear this year, I'm always searching for new hive apps on my AppStore, I just assumed it was a lot younger than us. You might be right, I think we would be better off allying with them than fighting with them at this point.
Well, I'm glad you've noticed my point. Since my previous comment has already received the mark of the beast. And it won't take long for his stupid minions to follow the trace.