Yesterday, my sysadmin forwarded me an email that he received from a company that I had written about on this blog, Earth Class Mail. I must admit that I am quite surprised to get such a letter from them. It is a mail accusing me of infringing on their trademark name. And on top of that, they want me to hand the domain over to them. Sounds like a fishy scam.
I’ve written a number of reviews about various online web services related to helping people reduce junk mail and save trees. I get great comments from people running those websites, even from Shoeboxed who offers FREE accounts, and I have never received anything like this until today. So I was quite dubious about the authenticity of this email.
I did a bit more research on Google and various other sites relating to Earth Class Mail, and I was shocked to discover the posts and comments out there regarding their business practice. I smell more stinky fish here. Before I actually post my findings, I will wait for a confirmation from them or until I receive the certified mail.
But if this is for real, then I am going to get quite PISSED about this and will fight back using any means necessary.
Anyone can contact me directly at jclaytonj (at) live (dot) com to give me feedback, offer me support, and/or offer legal advice.
UPDATE (10/30/2008): At 11:02am yesterday morning, I received an email stating that this is real. At 4:06pm yesterday afternoon, I received an email from their law firm, Perkins Coie, LLP, demanding that I “retract and remove these comments from your website immediately” and also cease and desist the use of this domain. Since they have authenticated this letter, I have retracted the requested statements. I write more about the new developments in the next post. Read it here ->
_____________________________________________________________________________
By Email and Certified Mail
Re: Notice of Trademark Infringement
Dear EarthMailFree.com,
Forgive us the impersonal salutation. As with the website at MyPostalMail.com, we could not find the name of an identifiable person on your website.
As you are aware, Earth Class Mail Corp. uses the term “EARTH CLASS MAIL” (and the domain name earthclassmail.com) in commerce as an identifier of the unique online postal mail service that it invented and has made famous in the relevant marketplaces.
You are employing the term EARTHMAILFREE as a domain name and an organizational designation in discussions of the online postal mail services with which the market overwhelmingly associates Earth Class Mail Corp. Such use constitutes an infringement of our trademark rights in EARTH CLASS MAIL. First, the marks themselves are similar. Your mark shares with EARTH CLASS MAIL two of its three terms, from the most distinctive of all, EARTH, to MAIL. Your addition of the generic word FREE does little to distinguish the terms and, indeed, is simply likely to be construed as an exhortation for our service to be free (which, coincidentally enough, is the business model of newcomer MyPostalMail.com). Moreover, some customers and potential customers of our service already call our service “Earth Mail”. Finally, your use of the term occurs in the context of a website expressly-built for the purpose of opining on the online postal mail service and market created by Earth Class Mail Corp. The likelihood of confusion as to the source, sponsorship, or endorsement of your site is manifest. It constitutes trademark infringement and unfair competition under the Lanham Act and state statutes.
Even without a likelihood of confusion, your use of EARTHMAILFREE dilutes the distinctiveness of our trademark, which is famous in the industry it created and among postal operators worldwide, and which is therefore protectable under the anti-dilution statutes of state and federal law.
Finally, to the extent your organization is affiliated with or sponsored by MyPostalMail.com – and we have numerous less-than-obvious grounds for believing it is – these knowing infringements amount to bad faith, and thus warrant not only actual damages but attorneys’ fees.
We have no legally cognizable objection to the content of your blog, except to the extent that it may be a potentially illegal shill for a service competitive with ours. Should we be obliged to proceed with legal action, discovery would soon enough turn up evidence one way or another. You are of course on notice not to attempt destruction of any evidence.
We demand that you cease use of the domain name and designation EARTHCLASSMAIL. Accordingly, if we do not hear from you by Friday, November 7, 2008, that you will cease such use and refrain from using any term confusingly similar to our trademark, and that you will transfer ownership of the domain name to us, at your cost, we will be obliged to review all legal options. Subject to applicable law, you would of course be free to move your blog content to a new domain name.
We look forward to hearing from you by November 7.
Sincerely,
Cameron Powell
General Counsel
Earth Class Mail Corp.
October 30, 2008 at 12:01 pm
[...] here I am, talking about the continuing progress of my current battle with Earth Class Mail over violating their trademark. As of now, they have confirmed that this is for real and an email was sent to me from their [...]
November 3, 2008 at 3:17 am
[...] received my first email (also via certified mail, which I never received) from the General Counsel of Earth Class Mail [...]