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> JB, the guy behind the Maryland Doom Fest, says he didn’t pursue the trademark after Id’s initial opposition. It would have been too expensive, he guesses. W

> JB, the guy behind the Maryland Doom Fest, says he didn’t pursue the trademark after Id’s initial opposition. It would have been too expensive, he guesses. Why do we still claim the world runs a democracy when the judicial system is clearly biased towards and abused by those who has the most time and resources to burn? The most mindblowing example I can think is when megacorps file bullshit claims that they know they would never win because they know the opposite party won't have the money to contest it.

jazzyjackson 5y ago
and all the lawyering talent is squatted by the wealthiest corporations, leaving very little competent representation for the rest of us
- skeeter2020 5y ago
  I think it's fair to say the same thing about technical talent today, so we should watch where we throw virtual stones...
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    I am happy to throw stones. I resent FANG for hoovering up the best talent just to keep them on payroll, lest they actually have to compete or acquire competition for many billions of dollars later, much cheaper to keep them busy on internal tooling.
avianlyric 5y ago
I think the bigger issues is that people like the legal system is inherently expensive, when often it isn’t. Although it frequently time consuming. > It would have been too expensive, he guesses. This attitude really bothers me. Why didn’t he find out how much it cost? It probably costs nothing to writing your own opposition and send it back to the trademark office. You’re only trying to convince an administrator, not a judge, and worst that can happen is you fail. But all you’ve lost is some time. Most government processes are designed so it’s possible for a lay person to figure it out. The real trick lawyers have managed, is convincing us all that you can’t engage with government or the justice system without an overpaid lawyer.
- clippablematt 5y ago
  Time consuming == expensive. If you engage with the case and the legal system you aren’t at work, you aren’t developing your product/company, you aren’t spending time with your family. You spend you time doing something other than the thing you want to be doing, you sacrifice all the possible opportunities you could have had doing other things. If you pay a lawyer or if you do it yourself it is expensive. Even if you only spend half an hour writing an email, that’s time you’ve lost, and that time is more valuable to you on a small scale than the cost for the legal department of a massive company that can have someone writing emails all day and eating up all your time.
  - avianlyric 5y ago
    Conflict is an inherent part of society. Either you engage with it, and use the tools available to you to defend the things you care about. Or you shut the fuck up. Most countries legal systems have very strong skews towards individuals, to make it easy(ish) for individuals to take on much larger entities. Most of the time these skews are so extreme that merely demonstrating that you understand how to send a correctly written letter is enough for most companies to back off. Large corporates prey entirely on the fact that people grossly underestimate how many rights they have, and make zero effort to enforce them. If spending 30mins to write an email is too much effort. Then clearly the issue isn’t significant to you. In which shut up and go away. If you can’t be bothered to write a 30 min email, then why the hell should anyone else give a shit?
    - Jare 5y ago
      > Most countries legal systems have very strong skews towards individuals I'd rather have a society where millions of people could fuck a company but in practice they don't, than one where a company can fuck millions of people and in practice it does.
      - avianlyric 5y ago
        > I'd rather have a society where millions of people could fuck a company but in practice they don't In many parts of the world we already do. People just don’t realise it. Companies only get away with fucking people because most people never make any attempt to report bad behaviour or know their rights. Consumer apathy and ignorance is the number one thing that enables corporate misbehaviour.
programmarchy 5y ago
Recently going through something very similar. I purchased a domain name for an app I was about to release, but it happened to conflict with a random German pharmaceutical drug for pets. There’s no industry overlap so I should be entitled to a trademark. But I got roped into a domain dispute case with WIPO for my .app domain. My lawyer said I could probably win the WIPO case, but the company would simply re-open the case in some other jurisdiction. Since my app is pre-revenue, I can’t really fight it. My lawyer recommended even though I was in the right, I should give up the fight because it could cost 100s of thousands of dollars with no guarantee of success. The lesson I learned is that before purchasing a domain name, secure a trademark from the USPTO. It’s not cheap though. Can run $300 to $1000, which is nothing for a big corporation, but a big barrier for individual creators trying to get something off the ground. This experience made me lose a lot of faith in “the law”. Rather than an level playing field among equals, it seems more like a protective moat for the rich and powerful.
- redisman 5y ago
  That sucks. In my case I got a low 5 figure buy out offer which I figured I better take to not find what’s the next step. It was a useless blog which was using a part of a large entertainment company’s name
varelse 5y ago
Because that's the way a lot of people want it just in case they become less embarrassed millionaires some day. You can never be sure! Silicon Valley is a nexus for this kind of thinking but at least there's a decent chance of doing that if you're not stupid about it and just spend a decade or two here jumping from one failed startup to another until one sticks. But be very careful, the virtue police here claim they don't like job hoppers (as they themselves jump from one position to another). As long as you're an at-will employee you owe nothing more than at-will loyalty. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise unless they pony up the cash upfront.
Vrondi 5y ago
I've never seen anyone claim that the world is a democracy.

jazzyjackson 5y ago

and all the lawyering talent is squatted by the wealthiest corporations, leaving very little competent representation for the rest of us

skeeter2020 5y ago
I think it's fair to say the same thing about technical talent today, so we should watch where we throw virtual stones...
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  I am happy to throw stones. I resent FANG for hoovering up the best talent just to keep them on payroll, lest they actually have to compete or acquire competition for many billions of dollars later, much cheaper to keep them busy on internal tooling.

avianlyric 5y ago

I think the bigger issues is that people like the legal system is inherently expensive, when often it isn’t. Although it frequently time consuming. > It would have been too expensive, he guesses. This attitude really bothers me. Why didn’t he find out how much it cost? It probably costs nothing to writing your own opposition and send it back to the trademark office. You’re only trying to convince an administrator, not a judge, and worst that can happen is you fail. But all you’ve lost is some time. Most government processes are designed so it’s possible for a lay person to figure it out. The real trick lawyers have managed, is convincing us all that you can’t engage with government or the justice system without an overpaid lawyer.

clippablematt 5y ago
Time consuming == expensive. If you engage with the case and the legal system you aren’t at work, you aren’t developing your product/company, you aren’t spending time with your family. You spend you time doing something other than the thing you want to be doing, you sacrifice all the possible opportunities you could have had doing other things. If you pay a lawyer or if you do it yourself it is expensive. Even if you only spend half an hour writing an email, that’s time you’ve lost, and that time is more valuable to you on a small scale than the cost for the legal department of a massive company that can have someone writing emails all day and eating up all your time.
- avianlyric 5y ago
  Conflict is an inherent part of society. Either you engage with it, and use the tools available to you to defend the things you care about. Or you shut the fuck up. Most countries legal systems have very strong skews towards individuals, to make it easy(ish) for individuals to take on much larger entities. Most of the time these skews are so extreme that merely demonstrating that you understand how to send a correctly written letter is enough for most companies to back off. Large corporates prey entirely on the fact that people grossly underestimate how many rights they have, and make zero effort to enforce them. If spending 30mins to write an email is too much effort. Then clearly the issue isn’t significant to you. In which shut up and go away. If you can’t be bothered to write a 30 min email, then why the hell should anyone else give a shit?
  - Jare 5y ago
    > Most countries legal systems have very strong skews towards individuals I'd rather have a society where millions of people could fuck a company but in practice they don't, than one where a company can fuck millions of people and in practice it does.
    - avianlyric 5y ago
      > I'd rather have a society where millions of people could fuck a company but in practice they don't In many parts of the world we already do. People just don’t realise it. Companies only get away with fucking people because most people never make any attempt to report bad behaviour or know their rights. Consumer apathy and ignorance is the number one thing that enables corporate misbehaviour.

programmarchy 5y ago

Recently going through something very similar. I purchased a domain name for an app I was about to release, but it happened to conflict with a random German pharmaceutical drug for pets. There’s no industry overlap so I should be entitled to a trademark. But I got roped into a domain dispute case with WIPO for my .app domain. My lawyer said I could probably win the WIPO case, but the company would simply re-open the case in some other jurisdiction. Since my app is pre-revenue, I can’t really fight it. My lawyer recommended even though I was in the right, I should give up the fight because it could cost 100s of thousands of dollars with no guarantee of success. The lesson I learned is that before purchasing a domain name, secure a trademark from the USPTO. It’s not cheap though. Can run $300 to $1000, which is nothing for a big corporation, but a big barrier for individual creators trying to get something off the ground. This experience made me lose a lot of faith in “the law”. Rather than an level playing field among equals, it seems more like a protective moat for the rich and powerful.

redisman 5y ago
That sucks. In my case I got a low 5 figure buy out offer which I figured I better take to not find what’s the next step. It was a useless blog which was using a part of a large entertainment company’s name

varelse 5y ago

Because that's the way a lot of people want it just in case they become less embarrassed millionaires some day. You can never be sure! Silicon Valley is a nexus for this kind of thinking but at least there's a decent chance of doing that if you're not stupid about it and just spend a decade or two here jumping from one failed startup to another until one sticks. But be very careful, the virtue police here claim they don't like job hoppers (as they themselves jump from one position to another). As long as you're an at-will employee you owe nothing more than at-will loyalty. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise unless they pony up the cash upfront.

Vrondi 5y ago

I've never seen anyone claim that the world is a democracy.