Start-up Askpedia: IAC doesn't like our name
Just how much does Ask.com own the word "Ask?" Enough to have a problem with a question-and-answer site called "Askpedia," apparently. Representatives from the start-up Askpedia.com told CNET News.com that the search engine's parent company, InterActiveCorp, sent a cease-and-desist letter earlier this month, citing intellectual property violations in the name "Askpedia."
"(This) is likely to cause consumer confusion, particularly inasmuch as Askpedia purports to provide online informational services that are substantially similar to those provided by Ask," the letter dated March 13 reads. "In using and incorporating Ask's intellectual property in this manner, Askpedia is falsely suggesting a connection between Ask and Askpedia, and thereby misappropriating the substantial good will associated with Ask's trademarks."
IAC representatives were contacted to verify the contents of the cease-and-desist letter, but were not immediately available for comment.
Ask.com's trademark on the name was first filed April 28, 1999, when the company was still known as Ask Jeeves and had not yet been acquired by the Barry Diller-helmed IAC in 2005. These days, the search engine has been undergoing a restructuring process in order to handle its tepid market share.
The letter, signed by Edward T. Ferguson, IAC senior vice president and general counsel, and provided to CNET News.com by Askpedia representatives, goes on to request that Askpedia "cease and desist from all use of Ask's trademarks and other intellectual property, including without limitation in the name 'Askpedia' or any similar formation using the word 'ask,'" and agree not to do so in the future.
A deadline of 10 days was provided, meaning that IAC would presumably seek legal action after Sunday, March 23.
Yong Su Kim, CEO of Askpedia, which describes itself as "a knowledge marketplace for questions and answers" and awards cash prizes to the best answers, said that his small start-up has about 100,000 registered users. He sent an e-mail to CNET News.com in which he speculated that "our guess is that their lawyers have nothing better to do."
Kim continued, "Either that or they're working on a Wikipedia-like service and want the domain name and trademark."
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline.
works, IAC will win. Might as well change your name now,
Askpedia.
They would have no legal claim to the name, and are merely hoping that the letter will scare the small site into turning the name over.
name was just too similar for MS. But, as I recall, Lindows actually
received some money from MS to make the case go away.
In this case we have a company objecting to three letters in a
particular sequence being uses in another name. I really don't see
how they could win. I mean, what if an information searching site
wanted to use tasking in its name?
I would think Wikipedia would be more likely to request the Askpedia name be changed as the site doesn't try to duplicate Ask as much as it does Wikipedia. But again the IAC would decide that.
ask.com should actually use their own site to look up the
appropriate and hilarious letter from Groucho Marx to Warner
Brothers when they objected to the Marx Brother's film which
included the named "Casablanca". Refer to: http://www.chillingeffects.org/resource.cgi?ResourceID=31
or, if you want weightier reference, although less amusing, see:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=449341
However, using "ask" in part of a domain name for a knowledge
based search website could cause confusion among the internet
population, however unlikely. You can copyright and trademark
commonly used words in certain instances or when written in
certain font, etc. because it is automatically associated with a
certain product or brand. One, example is a case where Hershey
chocolate manufacturers sued and won a case against a fashion
designer that created a line of clothes for breast feeding mother
titled "Milk Duds."
I agree with you that when I first read "Askpedia" my first
thought was not Ask.com it was actually Wikipedia. But,
Ask.com and IAC at least have enough of a case that they will
get it to court and then they will use their endless bags of money
to just pummel the start up into submission.
This is part of the business sludge the USPTO seems to throw on the ability of legitimate companies to compete. Congress and the courts are beginning to clean up the patent side; they also need to focus on the trademark side. There are thousands of dot-com trademarks -- filed AFTER the domain name was registered -- that should be canceled as a group.
recommended that I don't until the details of this case unfold.
Maybe I could question you about it though, my lawyers are still
mulling over that one.
This is so ridiculous it should be on comedy central.
- a$k.com
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by NewEnglander
March 30, 2008 11:29 AM PDT
- I posted this on Webware.com. However, another reader make a comment that posts there are not cross-posted here, along the main story line. So:
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Reply to this comment
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(16 Comments)"(This) is likely to cause consumer confusion, particularly inasmuch as ..." yada yada yada Askpedia will confuse consumers? How will that happen? Oh, I see, we consumers are too stooopid to know the difference between two websites. Cut me a break. I've used ask.com every now and then. But that's over now. I never heard of askpedia until this article. I checked 'em out. So, seeing the content of both, how in your over-inflated ego-mania mind, dear Ask.com, am I, and any species above a slug, going to be 'confused insomuch as' blah blah blah. Wait, I got it ... a$k.com That's all it's ever about.