6 ms·

Is using another companies trademarked name in the URL and service name and collecting their users names, emails and passwords not likely to lead to some legal

Is using another companies trademarked name in the URL and service name and collecting their users names, emails and passwords not likely to lead to some legal action?

dddrh 4y ago
Not sure about the company name, but there are communities that have revolve around Peloton that make access of the login. https://pzpack.com/ https://pzpack.com/ Being the one I’m aware of as it can analyze past rides.
- jimlongton 4y ago
  Unless they plan to offer similar services in future it seems Peloton are missing an opportunity to become a platform by not providing an API.
RC_ITR 4y ago
Peloton is probably the weakest example possible of this since they took a very common and established word (for a group of people riding together) as their brand. In more practical terms, back when PTON was still a stock darling, they constantly pushed how engaged their community was via Facebook groups, etc. so going after this would probably be a death knell signal that the magic is completely gone.
- chrisbaker98 4y ago
  Am I the only one who had no idea until now that "peloton" is an existing dictionary word and not just a brand name?
  - elteto 4y ago
    It means “platoon” in Spanish.
    - ioblomov 4y ago
      And French.
  - mcintyre1994 4y ago
    Probably not, but if you ever watch a cycling race with commentary on TV then you’ll hear it used. I’d guess since they expanded out from just cycling it’s probably not super unusual for people to come across them first though.
  - Lev1a 4y ago
    I've seen it a bunch of times on TV when my father watched Tour de France, Giro, etc.
- sowbug 4y ago
  Unfortunately, whether the word has a prior common meaning doesn't have a lot of bearing on a trademark infringement claim. The main test is whether a reasonable consumer would confuse the two marks. Plaid, Simple, Clear, Square are all strong brands and trademarks, for example. In this case, Peloton would argue that their name in the product name and domain might reasonably confuse someone into thinking that the two services come from the same company. That said, your final point is the critical one. It would be a poor business move for Peloton to rattle their sabers at someone helping build a community around their product.
  - RC_ITR 4y ago
    > Plaid, Simple, Clear, Square are all strong brands and trademarks, for example. Sure, those are brands. I agree. “Screen-scrape”, “I don’t know what simple is so it can’t be that great of a brand”,“Concierge” and “POS” would be bad brands that would likely fail trademark (in the same way peloton is a bad brand with limited trademark ability)
mikeortman 4y ago
Of course it could... but will it? Depends on Peloton, but they would most certainly issue a C&D first.
ipython 4y ago
I created a service to track my peloton rides over time. I used the fact that “friends” can see your rides using their undocumented api. So my app just requires you to “friend” a special user in peloton, then that user will “friend” you back automatically. That way I can pull your stats without your peloton username and password. Kind of a poor man’s oauth flow. You can always revoke the “friendship” later.

Is using another companies trademarked name in the URL and service name and collecting their users names, emails and passwords not likely to lead to some legal action?

dddrh 4y ago

Not sure about the company name, but there are communities that have revolve around Peloton that make access of the login. https://pzpack.com/ https://pzpack.com/ Being the one I’m aware of as it can analyze past rides.

jimlongton 4y ago
Unless they plan to offer similar services in future it seems Peloton are missing an opportunity to become a platform by not providing an API.

RC_ITR 4y ago

Peloton is probably the weakest example possible of this since they took a very common and established word (for a group of people riding together) as their brand. In more practical terms, back when PTON was still a stock darling, they constantly pushed how engaged their community was via Facebook groups, etc. so going after this would probably be a death knell signal that the magic is completely gone.

chrisbaker98 4y ago
Am I the only one who had no idea until now that "peloton" is an existing dictionary word and not just a brand name?
- elteto 4y ago
  It means “platoon” in Spanish.
  - ioblomov 4y ago
    And French.
- mcintyre1994 4y ago
  Probably not, but if you ever watch a cycling race with commentary on TV then you’ll hear it used. I’d guess since they expanded out from just cycling it’s probably not super unusual for people to come across them first though.
- Lev1a 4y ago
  I've seen it a bunch of times on TV when my father watched Tour de France, Giro, etc.
sowbug 4y ago
Unfortunately, whether the word has a prior common meaning doesn't have a lot of bearing on a trademark infringement claim. The main test is whether a reasonable consumer would confuse the two marks. Plaid, Simple, Clear, Square are all strong brands and trademarks, for example. In this case, Peloton would argue that their name in the product name and domain might reasonably confuse someone into thinking that the two services come from the same company. That said, your final point is the critical one. It would be a poor business move for Peloton to rattle their sabers at someone helping build a community around their product.
- RC_ITR 4y ago
  > Plaid, Simple, Clear, Square are all strong brands and trademarks, for example. Sure, those are brands. I agree. “Screen-scrape”, “I don’t know what simple is so it can’t be that great of a brand”,“Concierge” and “POS” would be bad brands that would likely fail trademark (in the same way peloton is a bad brand with limited trademark ability)

mikeortman 4y ago

Of course it could... but will it? Depends on Peloton, but they would most certainly issue a C&D first.

ipython 4y ago

I created a service to track my peloton rides over time. I used the fact that “friends” can see your rides using their undocumented api. So my app just requires you to “friend” a special user in peloton, then that user will “friend” you back automatically. That way I can pull your stats without your peloton username and password. Kind of a poor man’s oauth flow. You can always revoke the “friendship” later.