Welcome to the wooly world of business my friend. You're threatening an incumbent and he's lashing out. Peter has wrapped up his ego into HARO so expect him to take it personally.
Legally there's very little HARO can do except force you to defend a meritless case. I don't believe they have a leg to stand on. You're not violating copyright, or trademark in any form, and he doesn't have an issued patent.
The one real takeaway is never launch a business and credit the competitor on the site. It just gives them fuel to create legal hassles for you.
Next steps: Get a lawyer. Have your lawyer write a firm letter showing Shankman's lawyer that their claims are meritless and you will vigorously defend the case.
Meantime, this is a great PR coup for you. Tech blogs love a little drama, at least certain ones do. Use it for the free PR.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Though I have had to defend against bogus patent and copyright claims before.
Yea putting a competitor's name in your materials is probably a bad idea, unless you're Verizon...
I'd imagine its easier to stay under their radar if your site doesn't directly come up in google alert results for their name too.
BUT, considering that the battle is over the PR business, journalists should be eating this up! I bet a lot of startups wish they could get a high-profile cease and desist hahaha
For the record, Verizon got sued by AT&T for the commercials that made the direct comparison. They just have the money and clout that they can afford to be dragged through what both parties know is a meritless lawsuit.
I think the point is being sued worked out very well for Verizon, as it drew more attention to their claims of having a superior network to AT&T. (As you said, if they did not have the money and lawyers to dispute AT&T's claims it may have been a different story.)
Comments
Welcome to the wooly world of business my friend. You're threatening an incumbent and he's lashing out. Peter has wrapped up his ego into HARO so expect him to take it personally.
Legally there's very little HARO can do except force you to defend a meritless case. I don't believe they have a leg to stand on. You're not violating copyright, or trademark in any form, and he doesn't have an issued patent.
The one real takeaway is never launch a business and credit the competitor on the site. It just gives them fuel to create legal hassles for you.
Next steps: Get a lawyer. Have your lawyer write a firm letter showing Shankman's lawyer that their claims are meritless and you will vigorously defend the case.
Meantime, this is a great PR coup for you. Tech blogs love a little drama, at least certain ones do. Use it for the free PR.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Though I have had to defend against bogus patent and copyright claims before.
Yea putting a competitor's name in your materials is probably a bad idea, unless you're Verizon...
I'd imagine its easier to stay under their radar if your site doesn't directly come up in google alert results for their name too.
BUT, considering that the battle is over the PR business, journalists should be eating this up! I bet a lot of startups wish they could get a high-profile cease and desist hahaha
If you're under your competitors' radar then you're probably under your potential customers' radar, too, right?
For the record, Verizon got sued by AT&T for the commercials that made the direct comparison. They just have the money and clout that they can afford to be dragged through what both parties know is a meritless lawsuit.
I think the point is being sued worked out very well for Verizon, as it drew more attention to their claims of having a superior network to AT&T. (As you said, if they did not have the money and lawyers to dispute AT&T's claims it may have been a different story.)