Well I figured this might happen eventually. A company in Texas has taken exception to my use of the name ‘Dataface’ for my open source application framework. It must rot their socks that I also come up #1,2 and 3 on Google for the search term “Dataface”.
I received a letter from their lawyers as follows:
The Buskop Law Group
Patents & Trademarks
4511 Dacoma Street
Houston, TX 77092
Telephone: 713-275-3400
Fax: 713-275-3419
www.buskoplaw.com
Dear Mr. Hannah,
We are the intellectual property cousel for Dataface, Inc., a company that awas founded in 1981. Dataface is the owner of the common law and U.S. federally protected trademark DATAFACE for a computer program in the field of facilitating conversion of legacy applications and data to a newer, more efficient technology using object-oriented programming techniques, as referenced by U.S. Trademark No. 2,617,053.
Dataface. Inc. has used the trademark DATAFACE in conjunction with their products and associated services since 1997. A copy of the referenced U.S. federal trademark registration is included herein as Attachment A. In addition, Dataface, Inc., has used the referenced trademark in Canada in conjunction with their products as well. Through extensive use of the mark, our client has developed a valuable goodwill in the DATAFACE trademark.
It has come to our client’s attention that you and your company are currently using a mark termed “Dataface” to promote and advertise products offered by your company on the company’s website at www.data-face.com. A copy of the webpage showing use of the term “Dataface” from the website at www.data-face.com is included herein as Attachment B.
Your use of the term Dataface is highly similar in look, sound, and connotation to our client’s common law and U.S. federally protected trademark DATAFACE. In addition, your use of the term “Dataface” is used in association with goods and/or services that are highly related to the goods and/or services offered by our client and covered under their U.S. federal trademark registration. Given the clear similarity between the term “Dataface”, as used on your company’s website, and our client’s trademark, your continued use of the term “Dataface” may cause a likelihood of confusion among consumers and customers of our client’s products and associated services.
Accordingly, my client requests that you discontinue the use of the www.data-face.com domain name and dicontinue the use, display, distribution of materials bearing the term “Dataface”, any derivations of the term “Dataface”, or any expression that comprises in whole or in part, our client’s trademark DATAFACE, within 30 days of service of this letter, and adopt another term for use in conjunction with your company’s products and services. Please contact our office if you have any additional questions regarding this matter.
Regards,
Buskop Law Group, P.C.
Wendy K. B. Buskop
Managing Patent Attorney
cc: Dataface, Inc.
Judith Osborne, VP Legal Affairs, Simon Fraser University
Cleverly, they applied for a canadian trademark a couple of weeks ago to solidify their case.