Busted by Kubota Kops!

al3 · May 25, 2005

'Suppose if we had this many legal professionals back in WWII, "Deere John" letters would have been outlawed???

chucko · May 25, 2005

Maybe you could sale them "CaptainKubota.com" and retire

chucko · May 25, 2005

waiit "CaptainKubota" is not "Kubota"!

RonR · May 25, 2005

Well, I've caved to the perceived legal pressure. www.captainkubota.com is no longer active, so if you wanted to go see what the fuss was about, don't bother as all it has is a note that says "Accused by Kubota, yada, yada, yada."

I do however, still own the domain name for awhile yet.........

Thanks for all the great communication--it was fun and entertaining, but alas, we should probably move on........

Henro, I've turned you in, so you'd better hide..........

Have fun,
Ron, formerly known as captaink_________a......

getut · May 25, 2005

That is infuriating like that. I'm the type person that would find a loophole and aggresively exploit it just to pi$$ them off after doing me that way. I can get VERY spiteful in these types of scenarios.

Ideas:
1) Rename it into a humor site. Satire is protected by law against trademark and copyright infringement. KUBOTAJOKES.COM or CAPTAINKUBOTAJOKES.COM for example. Just change it ENOUGH that you can argue it is satire.

2) Make it YOU specific. MYKUBOTA.COM and put up pictures of your Kubota. Have a tee-shirt made and show a picture of yourself sitting on the tractor wearing the tee shirt on the main page. Tee shirt saying "Captain Kubota".

Knute · May 25, 2005

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( And I'm sure no matter how good or bad the site is, that's not the issue--it's that you are doing something with their name and they don't like that. )</font>

Because they said since you aren't a dealer they won't cut you any slack my guess is that it's the fact that you aren't making them any money and that's where the problem is. Corporations are always watching the bottem line, sometimes at the expense of public relations.

chucko · May 25, 2005

want us to all e-mail bota as owners of botas?

hwew · May 25, 2005

I missed everything that happened and am saddened on the out come.
It might not be to late to rename the site CAPTAIN-ATOBUK.COM

Lets see if Kubota's Legal department can do somthing with this.

RonR · May 25, 2005

Geeze guys, RELAX. I'm out maybe $100. I don't want to take the time and effort to end up having to get lawyered to fight something that they likely would win. Doing any spinoff of their name now that they have warned me would probably rachett up their legal department even more.

I will get a lot of mileage out of handing out my biz cards with that website crossed off and saying "Yeah, Kubota Corp made me take my site down........ Guess I was dipping into their profits too much.........."

I do appreciate all the fine compliments and "advice" I received here. This was fun.

Ron, formerly captaink_____a

RickOliver · May 25, 2005

"I think a trademark holder's worry is that if you don't enforce your trademark with non threatening encroachers, then you may not be able to enforce it with serious encroachers."

That's pretty much it. It's called trademark dilution. Xerox and Kleenex are classic examples of companies that almost lost their trademarks. Most of the time, the legal stiffs just want a paper trail that proves they went through the motions to protect their mark. But you never know.

regor66 · May 25, 2005

How about using Kaptain Cubota?

MadDog · May 25, 2005

I think you did the smart thing, Ron. The Japanese Trademark Police have probably collared Henro already. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif He's probably in the hold of a Tuna Boat, shackled in 3/8" grade 80 chain (made in the USA to be sure it holds /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) and is on his way to Tokyo to be tried for using the K***** name (see, I'm not as dumb as I look; I'm not gonna provoke 'em /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif ) to promote German beer.

If your still in computer range, my advice, Henro (relax, for which there'll be no charge) is to throw yourself on the Big K legal department's mercy and promise to never drink in association with their tradename again..... Ifn you don't they'll probably throw you in jail for 20 years and give you nothing to drink but those little white softboiled egg cups filled with Sake. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Been nice knowin' ya, Buddy. Have SWMBO send the tractor(s) my way.....

Av8r3400 · May 25, 2005

/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Uh-oh. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

My K*b*ta Page

In Memory of Henro-- RIP.

Rolando · May 26, 2005

I think you should change your last name to 'Kubota'. Can't hassle you if you named your site after yourself!

PhilNH5 · May 26, 2005

Rolando,
This may not be true. When I lived in MD I remember a news story about a lady named Sony. She had a restaurant named Sony. The electronics giant successfully sued her for trademark infringment.

Here is a little info Govt Records

Phil

slowzuki · May 26, 2005

But Mr. Nissan got to keep his computer website despite being sued by Nissan Motors.

MadDog · May 26, 2005

Wow, that's a scary situation. While I am not an "intellectual property" lawyer, I understand the problems that waiving a trademark infringement may create with respect to more serious and legitimate infringements. Still, it seems pretty ridiculous to me that not prosecuting someone for engaging in a non-competing business under her own name would create a waiver.

My oldest daughter is also a lawyer and still uses (in part) my family name. I guess even if we wanted to go into practice together, we couldn't do it as "Johnson & Johnson" /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif even if we weren't planning to sell band-aids on the side. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

BTW, I understand that Henro is now on a starvation diet of just ONE suchi a day. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif Have a "rice" day, Henro. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif