Comments on: Startup Case Study: Cease & Desist Letter

By: We’re Crowdsourcing our new product name

We’re Crowdsourcing our new product name — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:39:27 +0000

[...] week I wrote about the issues we were having after receiving a "Cease and Desist Letter" from a large company. [...]

By: Technology news - Techvibes Blog

Technology news - Techvibes Blog — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:39:56 +0000

[...] Dex – A business relationship management tool for professionals & small businesses. Interesting side story – they recently received a cease & desiste letter. [...]

By: Scott Annan

Scott Annan — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:34:19 +0000

Thanks everyone for some great feedback.

There has been some movement that I can’t talk about until after I get the “green light” from our lawyers (the contest will open within the week… stay tuned!)

By: Patrick Pichette

Patrick Pichette — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:28:48 +0000

OK, I am late to the discussion, so this will sound redundant: find a new name.

Scott, MG has a strong following, just look at the feedback. So here’s an idea – host a naming contest. I know, not very original…but so what. Open it up to everyone who signed-up for a Dex (d’oh, I mean Deks) beta. Give away an iPod or some other gadget (when is Kindle coming to Canada?) to the winning entry. I bet you get lots of great ideas.

But seriously, before you make a new name official, listen to Steve and run it by an IP firm like Gowlings. Paying for this service (on a start-up budget) is a pain in the a$$, but it will save you time and energy down the road.

By: Natasha D'Souza

Natasha D'Souza — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:42:47 +0000

It’s unfortunate but this is a huge distraction for you at the moment. I say take the path of least resistance and come up with another name. Use your social media vehicles to assist you with this campaign.

Picking a name is very important and perhaps it’s time to invest in a proper name search. Your product is great so the new name will have to be something that you can brand effectively for a while.

You’re not the first startup to be faced with this so cheer up and looking forward to the new name.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:07:01 +0000

Yup! I have a plan B. Needed one from the get-go because I don’t own askaround dot com. My attempts to “inform and engage” produced a brush-off and a vague trademark threat.

Your competitive advantage is that you are nimble, quick-witted, creative people. Companies who phone the lawyers first are rarely any of the above. Tim Ferris wrote about this recently http://snipurl.com/6pvd6 There are some very useful comments a long way down the list. Gist is that ‘Lawyers act like this because they can’t help it”

Nameboy has everything you need. ( I have some ideas too if you are really stuck) The solution you find will be better than anything you have to leave behind. I know it’s going to cost you some but it will be cheaper that the lawyers and well worth it in the long-run.

Trouble is our businesses are like kids. We need to name them and then we can’t help being emotionally attached to the name. My next endeavor will be called ‘working title’ until it is 5 years old!

By: Ian Brown

Ian Brown — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:32:50 +0000

All good advice. If you are ready to move on let me be the first to submit an name – simply rotate the “d” 180 degrees – pex for “professional exchange” . pex.com is “taken” but is not very active (Alexa ranking of 4M+) It might be cheaper to make them an offer than fight this one. (If you have a contest as Chris suggested, a great idea, this is my entry)

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:38:30 +0000

I have to agree with what the others are saying: They use the name “Dex” frequently and you could argue that “your Dex” is a different line of business and in a different geography. But at the end of the day it’s just going to be a big distraction that will add no value to your company.

Why don’t you turn this into an opportunity? Have (another?) name search contest. You could make this a very viral campaign: the reason for the contest (big corporation using a hammer on small business; the distasteful nature of a C&D) would attract a lot of attention while giving you a great platform to talk about the unique features of your product.

By: Steve O'Halloran

Steve O'Halloran — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:23:12 +0000

Dexknows.com is owned by RH Donnelly; a public company on the NYSE with revenues > $6B (yup, billion). Chances are that RHDonnelly has never heard of you, but they most likely have an outsourced Legal firm that is on retainer to ensure IP/Trademark & copyright ‘assurance’. That law firm will prove their ‘worth’ to RH Donnelly by ensuring that your reference to ‘DEX’ is removed… and they will win by attrition (i.e. let’s both burn $600 a day in legal fees and see who gives up first).

It *used* to be safe to assume that grabbing the domain ensured that the business ‘name’ was safe…. but not today…. Roll over on this one.

Maybe you could ‘extend’ the name ‘Dex’ to ‘Dexit’ or even flip it to D3X (pronounced ‘Decks’)… but more importantly, get the name ‘checked’ via an IP firm like Gowlings. Christopher.VanBarr@gowlings is an excellent resource; and he used to be legal counsel at Corel.

By: Jay Godse

Jay Godse — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:56:13 +0000

Hi Scott.

I’m with Raymond Luk on this one. Roll over.

I think you are on the verge of launching a powerful new category in CRM products, and the name you pick will become strongly associated with the category.

Good luck.

Cheers, Jay