Tweet.me: What A Lawsuit This Buyer Should Prepare For!
REVISION: DNUnderground apologizes for misleading information contained in this article. DNUnderground only used information acquired at the time of writing this article. The owner of Tweet.me has had previous conversations with Twitter and has gotten their approval on his domain name and business plan. If you’re interested, the only disclosed details can be found by CLICKING HERE.
As most of you have heard, the domain name Tweet.me sold for $11,505 in a premium .me domain auction, as Domain Name Wire reported. Well, if I was to make a reasonable guess, the buyer just flushed $11,505 down the drain. This domain name not only falls under trademark infringement, but it also violates the ACPA (Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act) in some cases.
This domain name is infringing on the trademarked name of Twitter. The term “Tweet Me” is used constantly when referring to Twitter. If I had my guess, the average user could be easily confused as to who this website, Tweet.me, is owned by and the purpose of it. If a term that is trademarked, and a domain name can be easily confused, that domain name’s owner should just be waiting for his or her cease and desist letter.
Just to double up, if the owner is stupid enough to offer Tweet.me to sell to Twitter, Twitter can easily have a strong lawsuit against the owner for violating the ACPA. The ACPA states that if a domain owner owns a domain name that is either trademarked or contains an individual’s name with the sole intent of selling the rights of the domain name to the trademark holder or individual, they can endure up to $50,000 in damages per domain name, and must give up the domain name to the trademark holder. So this really depends on what the buyer does. If the buyer keeps the domain for himself and doesn’t offer it to Twitter, he doesn’t need to worry about the ACPA.
Anyways, I’d love to hear your comments on this purchase. If I were the buyer, I would start figuring out a plan, quick, before Twitter files a lawsuit. Comment below.
Get some help… Tweet is a word in the english dictionary. Twitter is the name of a company, not tweet. The term tweet has widespread 3rd party use also.
Twitter doesn’t own a TM on the word “tweet.” In addition, the people from Twitter have stated that they have no issues with people building apps or sites that use the word “tweet,” “twit,” etc in them. When you use the actual word “Twitter” is when you run into a problem.
Just a thought, but maybe you should do your research before you let words fly out of your mouth. Twitter has not trademarked tweet. Have you ever thought the owners of domain may have already discussed this situation with twitter? I would continue but because of some of the statements you have made I can see you aren’t worth my time.
Twitter holds the TM for Twitter, and others have already had TM’s for the term Tweet. aka TweetDeck. Twitter them self have said Twit and Tweet are “ok” to use. http://tinyurl.com/qkudxb Comment #4 . Thanks to Reece for the link.
With all due respect to all of your comments, I am sticking with my original statement. Please tell me how else the term Tweet Me can be used other than in a twitter reference. If the domain just had Tweet.com or something similar to that, then all of your comments might be right, but the domain says Tweet Me, which I could only imagine to reference Twitter. I am not letting words fly out of my mouth, you just need to read the article closely. If I didn’t write it clearly to explain that TWEET ME was what I was talking about, than I apologize.
“There are certainly many applications out there that include “Twitter”
as part of their name, but we prefer that you not do so. “Twit”,
“Tweet”, etc. are all fine.”
That is a quote from Alex Payne, a developer at Twitter from the link you were given above..
Tweet is fine to use and that includes using a keyword before or after.
It’s absurd to think he was referring to just using “tweet” alone.
And of course tweet will be used to refer to twitter.
The objection is to using the “Twitter” trademarked name in any application, etc.
not authorized by Twitter.
I personally wouldn’t say either side, the author or you guys, is right or wrong, it’s really just a matter of debate…
“Tweet” could be an infantile slang meaning “treat” as in “Uncle Fred’s gonna tweet (treat) us to an ice cweam cone.”
@admin…. NO, I believe you didn’t read my comment clearly. You don’t know whats going on behind the scenes. Twitter knows what the domain is going to be used for and doesn’t have a problem with. I have the email to prove it. So stop writing about subjects you obviously don’t know!
Give a person blog and they stick their foot in their mouth.
A couple of things you accomplished by posting such absurd claims:
Traffic
Dunce Cap
Sticking by your claims does not make them right. Just makes you a bigger fool and a bigger target.
@geoff – even after someone from Twitter stated it is okay, what in the hell is left to debate? The author sticking by his claim? Or you indecision?
While I appreciate the loads of comments, I have taken some offense to the last one by Gerry, but I can see where he is coming from, so I want to explain something to start off with. The reason that I blog is for fun and to let out my opinion. You don’t see loads of advertisements on this blog for a reason. Yes, there are some to make ends meet, but this blog was not created with the intent to get traffic and profit, as many blogs are. So any claims, stories, or opinions I post are for the sole purpose of telling others my opinion on things in the domaining world.
To everyone else, I am fairly reasonable, and I am VERY open to others opinions. People convince me to do something else I originally wouldn’t have done on a daily basis. But I stick by the things that I say for a reason, and I don’t just follow along with the crowd. Not to say any of you are doing so, but I don’t want to be accused of being stubborn.
@tweetdotme – Listen, I blog about subjects I find interesting. I have done my research on intellectual property, trademark infringement, the ACPA, and many other aspects of internet law. While I don’t know every detail to a deal, that shouldn’t stop me from blogging my opinion from what I know. If everyone knew every detail to every single transaction, deal, situation, etc. then blogging wouldn’t be interesting. As I see it, you are the owner of Tweet.me and I didn’t make you or your domain look bad. I just blogged about a situation that I found to be interesting, that your normal unfriendly big business might sue for. Twitter happens to be really nice.
Expressing opinion is not the same as crapping unsubstantiated fluff. Takes away the credibility you are so hard at work to build.
Hey! Nice job here! I’ll be dropping by from time to time