Trademark Disputes

You may have noticed that the web addresses for this blog and the main site have changed. The Amblesite name is also gone. As is the logo. Why?

Because a certain teacher...I've cooled down enough to not mention his name but you may be able to figure out anyway...sternly took me aside and yelled at me (okay, didn't yell at me but he seemed quite ticked off, as if I had given him a personal affront), telling me to get Amblesite offline this afternoon.

He said it was a breach of trademark, and the site was saying things that they didn't want associated with Ambleside. Something like that.

I reacted drastically, compared with how I could have reacted. Amblesite.com now redirects to amblesideschools.org (how can they complain about that; I paid out of my own pocket for the domain and everything). All mentions of "Ambleside" are taken off of the site (except what I'm mentioning right now). The logo is gone.

I actually don't think he socked me like that because of the whole trademark thing...

First off, he only discovered about the whole site yesterday. The whole trademark thing would have had to have gone...I think (no wait he's the expert on that sorta thing now I remember)...through a few people, and taken more than 24 hours to come back to me.

Second, "Ambleside" isn't actually trademark-able, no more than "Apple" is trademark-able (just ask The Beatles!). It's a city in England, for gosh sakes. I highly doubt that "Ambleside School of Fredericksburg" is trademarkable.

What about the whole logo thing? That's actually the only part of the site that might have been a breach in trademark. But wait...I asked permission to use a high-res copy of the logo for the site...from the head guy in the firm that made the logo! And I told the principal about the site, and she approved. Bases covered? I think so.

Plus, he didn't even mention the logo when he berated me for "trademark breach". Funny how that slipped his mind. It seems like the crux of the matter was that he saw on the site (I don't know what he saw...I don't see anything as horribly against Ambleside) something that he thought detrimental to the school. What, I don't know. How it would affect anyone, with the site getting practically no hits, with the only traffic coming from people inside the school as far as I know. I'd have to end up saying that his whole trademark thing was an excuse to get me offline...and he didn't seem willing to talk with me about what really peeved him.

So I'll talk with him...I'm becoming more reasonably outraged than simply ticked off at the guy's brusque manner. And if I lose in the discussion, this site can quickly sever all ties with Ambleside that it still has, and go underground...

Night, folks. Look for another post tomorrow about various things. WIll probably call tomorrow about the site, too...