Di solito titolo i post in inglese ‘perchè fa figo’ ma oggi veramente non riuscivo a rendere bene il concetto.
E’ successo nel mondo dei blog ciò che purtroppo succede da tempo nel mondo reale: gente che si appropria dei meriti di altra gente, copiando spudoratamente creazioni intellettuali altrui e fregandosene della correttezza.
E’ successo a Shoegal, a cui hanno copiato dei post su altre piattaforme, ed è successo a Shoeperwoman, ma a quest’ultima è andata decisamente peggio.
A Amber McNaugh, proprietaria della Midas Media e dei blog che ne fanno parte (uno appunto è Shoeperwoman, a tema scarposo 🙂 ) è successo che una poco simpatica signora abbia ‘duplicato’ il suo blog, o meglio ne abbia aperto uno con lo stesso nome.
Amber è una blogger affermata, ha un sito curato e un discreto numero di lettori: ovviamente dal blog trae anche guadagni, ma ne ha tutto il diritto. L’altra signora appunto ha deciso di sfruttare la popolarità di Amber per guadagnarci sopra, e non contenta ha fatto richiesta per ottenere la registrazione del marchio.
Se riuscirà nel suo intento, Amber non potrà più legalmente utilizzare il proprio sito, in quanto marchio registrato da altri. Aggiungete che ha anche un account Facebook e Twitter.
Ovviamente, ora Amber e il marito hanno anch’essi fatto domanda per la registrazione del marchio, procedura che è piuttosto costosa; la controversia legale va avanti, e l’altra str signora continua a fregarsene altamente..
Per la serie.. W la correttezza!!
IMPORTANTE!!! per aiutare la povera Amber a provare il suo diritto a utilizzare il suo marchio, è sufficiente cliccare su uno dei tanti link al suo sito che ho disseminato nel post, perchè vanno a rinforzare la sua posizione nei motori di ricerca.
UN CLICK PER AMBER! 🙂
Di seguito, il post originale della Shoeperwoman originale.
Following on from my most recent post about the dispute we’re involved in over the “Shoeperwoman” brand, I’ve just received the following comment from Laura Blake, in which she demands that I immediately remove my post, and threatens to contact the police and have me charged with harassment if I do not. As Laura has posted her comment in the public domain, I’m sure she will not mind me reproducing it here:
“Hi Amber,
I am really disappointed to see the way that you have reacted today, and in organising an inaccurate hate campaign against me via your blog.
I think I’ve been more than willing to talk with you, and reach an amicable solution and today reached out to you to offer to bookmark and outline the points of differentiation between our sites.
You have posted a lot of misleading, inaccurate and incomplete information about me and my business on your site today and it’s been hurtful to see someone act so unprofessionally and damaging to my business and my name.
Therefore I wanted to once again reach out to you, and ask if you wanted to have a proper discussion (so we can both operate in our respective niches…I categorically did not see your site first and decide to set mine up anyway – I explained all of this to you, but think you’ve misinterpreted my comments.)
I did not set out to close you down, or take over, and registering the TM was about protecting me as a business…I would do that for any business I start, it’s the first rule of setting up a company. Seeing any form of Shoeper-Woman wasn’t already registered I didn’t think that ShoeperWoman was a serious company, I thought it was an American site, and just a bit of fun, and not a competitor as you don’t retail shoes or design them.
I would still consider talking about the linking suggestion I made earlier, a joint statement, or even tweaking my branding (or not using certain phrases if you believe they are ‘yours’) so I’m more than open to those type of discussions (or others if you have any bright ideas) but you MUST remove your earlier post about me that was slander and cyberbullying, and I also expect an apology on your site and an end to this hate campaign.
If you are not willing to do this, I’m going to speak to the police in the morning about pressing charges against you for harassment, slander, and cyber-bullying.
I’m sure this is something we could both do without right now, but as above, I’m not out to cause or do any malicious damage, so I’d appreciate the same professional courtesy.
As previous, still wish you the best with your sites and business ventures,
Laura”
I’m frankly astonished that someone would not only try to trademark my blog name, but then threaten to report me to the police for defending myself. The post below is an accurate statement of the situation I’ve found myself in and I’m confident that it contains nothing which could be construed as libel or harresment: indeed, Laura actually suggested that I publish a post clarifying the differences between our two sites, having also suggested that we issue a press release about the situation to garner publicity. I will not be responding again to Laura, as I can see little point in trying to communicate with someone who is threatening to report me to the police, but obviously she is free to take any action she feels is appropriate.
Important announcement regarding Shoeperwoman.com
(First of all, the Shoeper Shoe Challenge roundup will not be appearing today as my time has been totally taken up with the issue below. My apologies to everyone who’s sent me photos – I promise I will publish them on Monday. In the meantime, I would really appreciate your comments and re-tweets on this post…)
I had really hoped not to have to write this post, but having exhausted my other options I’ve taken legal advice (from the wonderful Caveat Calcei, who you all know from the Shoe Challenge), and feel I have no option but to go public about an issue regarding the “Shoeperwoman” name and this site.
As most of my regular readers will know, I set up Shoeperwoman two years ago this month, having registered the domain in May of 2008 and spent a year planning the site. At the time there were no other sites using the name. Earlier this year, however, a UK-based company launched a shoe blog called “Shoeper-woman” and an associated retail website of the same name.
(Not my blog)
I don’t really want to link to these sites as I feel they are damaging enough to my brand without me helping their Google rank, but you can see the address of the retail site from the image above and the blog can be found at shoeper-woman.blogspot.com (note: all of the links in this post are nofollow, and this is the only time I will link to these sites.) First of all, I want to clarify that these sites have absolutely no connection to Shoeperwoman.com or to Midas Media. I realise it’s confusing for people as they are using the same name, and writing about the same subjects, often in exactly the same way (i.e. using phrases like “shoeper-hero”, “Shoeper-man” etc.) but there is no connection, so please know that this is the only “Shoeperwoman” site run by us (with the exception of our associated Twitter and Facebook accounts, which also use the “Shoeperwoman” name), therefore if you come across these sites, or any others, please be aware that they have nothing to do with us.
The other company is also using the name “Shoeper-woman” on Twitter, Facebook and other sites, which I realise adds to the confusion. If you are in any doubt whether something you read online is being said by me, or by Laura Blake, who is the owner of the other sites, please feel free to get in touch.
(Not me)
When I found out about these sites, I immediately contacted Laura Blake, who tells me that she does not believe there is any issue with her using exactly the same name as me for her two sites (although she has put up a disclaimer today which you can read on her blog). Obviously I’m disappointed about this. I set up Shoeperwoman.com two years ago: it is my livelihood (along with my other blogs), and Terry and I have worked very hard to build up the brand to where it is today. It’s disheartening, to say the least, to find that someone has knowingly decided to use exactly the same name and idea for a very similar project (Laura tells me she was aware of the existence of this site but decided to use the name regardless), and obviously this will make it much harder for both of the respective businesses to thrive, as rather than having our own unique identities, these two new sites have effectively set themselves up in direct competition to us instead.
(Not my Shoeperman…)
What Laura didn’t tell me during our lengthy email conversations, was that not only has she knowingly used a name which has been associated with my blog for the past two years, she has also applied for the UK trademark to the name “Shoeper-woman”. If she is successful in this application, this would mean that I would no longer be able to use the name I have made mine, and this site will effectively cease to exist. As the revenue from this site forms a large part of my income, I’m sure you can understand my distress at this, and the reason I’m writing this post.
To answer the obvious question that has cropped up in relation to this: no, we do not own the trademark to the name “Shoeperwoman”. We looked into doing this when we launched the site, however the very high cost of this was prohibitive for us, as it is for most other bloggers, and so we were forced to rely on the goodwill and common sense of our fellow bloggers/site owners, and to hope that most people would prefer to create something that’s truly their own rather than to duplicate another brand. Obviously that isn’t always the case: some of you may remember the issues Jennine Jacob’s The Coveted encountered recently when another site launched using the same name, and if this can happen to me, and can happen to a well-known blogger like Jennine, it can happen to anyone.
We have now lodged our own trademark application for the name, which means we’re already hundreds of pounds out of pocket in our bid to assert our right to continue to use a name which has been associated with this site for two years now, and which I have also used on Twitter, Facebook and other sites for the same length of time. Having taken advice on this, we believe it could cost us much more to defend our brand, which is obviously causing us a great deal of stress. This is where you come in:
How you can help Shoeperwoman:
Obviously this is a source of huge concern to us, so we would welcome any support our readers and friends have to offer us, in the shape of comments, re-tweets and advice. If you are a blogger, and would like to mention this issue on your site, I would be eternally grateful, not just for my sake, but because as I mentioned above, this is something that can happen to anyone, and it is devastating to work so hard on something for so long, only to see it put at risk like this. Also, any links back to Shoeperwoman.com (especially those using the word “Shoeperwoman” as the link text) would be a huge help to us right now as they will help cement our position in search engines and support our right to the trademark when we file our dispute.
I also want to say a big thank you to everyone who has emailed Terry and I with their support over this issue: it really means the world to us to know that we have loyal readers who will continue to support us no matter how many other ”Shoeperwomen” crop up!
The Fashion Cat 
^_^ Shoeperwoman ti ha pubblicamente ringraziato! 😀
"Mi piace""Mi piace"
anche te 😀
"Mi piace""Mi piace"
Ci ^_^!!
"Mi piace""Mi piace"