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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Is Trying To Launch a Social Media Site, and It's Already Resulted In a Legal Threat (thedailybeast.com) 229

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Daily Beast: MyPillow founder and staunch Trump ally Mike Lindell plans to launch a social network of his own in the next few weeks, creating a haven for the kind of pro-Trump conspiracy theories that have been banned on more prominent social-media sites. On Lindell's "Vocl" social media platform, users will be free to claim that a supercomputer stole the election from Donald Trump, or that vaccines are a tool of the devil. Any new social media network faces serious challenges. But Vocl must grapple with a daunting problem before it even launches: a website called "Vocal," spelled with an "A," already exists.

On Thursday, lawyers for Vocal's publicly traded parent company, Creatd, Inc., warned Lindell, in a letter reviewed by The Daily Beast, to change his social media network's name and surrender ownership of the Vocl.com domain name. If Lindell refuses to change the name, he could face a lawsuit. While Lindell has promised to turn Vocl into a "cross between Twitter and YouTube," Vocal is a publishing platform similar to Medium where writers can post and monetize articles. "It is clear that you are acting with bad faith and with intent to profit from Creatd's mark," the letter reads, claiming Lindell's Vocl would "tarnish" the Vocal brand. Creatd owns the trademark for using "Vocal" in a number of ways related to social networking, including creating "virtual communities" and "online networking services." Along with surrendering ownership of the Vocl.com domain name, Creatd wants Lindell to destroy any products with Vocl branding and never use the name again. "Creatd is prepared to take all steps necessary to protect Creatd's valuable intellectual property rights, without further notice to you," the letter reads.
On Friday morning, the MyPillow CEO said: "It has nothing to do with their trademark. I haven't even launched yet. But it has nothing to do with us." He claims Vocl is also an acronym that stands for "Victory of Christ's Love."

Early Friday afternoon, Lindell told The Daily Beast to say, "We looked into it, and we believe it would be confusing, so we are going to announce a different name and URL by Monday."
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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Is Trying To Launch a Social Media Site, and It's Already Resulted In a Legal Threat

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  • A better name (Score:3, Insightful)

    by qzzpjs ( 1224510 ) on Friday March 12, 2021 @06:47PM (#61152604)

    Just call it "Great Republican Lies". At least you could trust that the name of the site is the truth.

  • PillowTalk? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tim the Gecko ( 745081 ) on Friday March 12, 2021 @06:49PM (#61152610)

    Or perhaps not...

    • pillowtalk.com: PillowTalk Childbirth Education
    • pillowtalk.co.uk: Pillow Talk: UK Adult Toys & Bondage
    • pillowtalk.com.au: One of the largest homeware and bedding specialists in Australia
  • And by god True American (TM) conservative billionaire patriots aren't going to take it lying down. No sir!

    What we need are safe spaces for conservatives!

    More echo chambers! Keep out all the lying liberals!

    That said, this lawsuit is crap. There is no reasonable chance that the pillow guy's domain name (vocl.com) is going to be confused with with the established (vocal.com) domain name. If he chooses to fight it I'm on his side.

    If a court rules that there is a conflict, then it means that every

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • IANAL and certainly not an expert on Trademark law. But having owned a few trademarks and read a few lawsuits about them, this doesn't even break from the pack in terms of viability.

      Being "confusingly similar" in a category for which a trademark is used is ample reason to bring (and win) an infringement suit. It doesn't work with homophones (remember M$ and their idiotic whinging about "Mike Rowe Soft" years ago?), but this is only one letter off.

      And it appears they already scared the pillow eejit off, so t

      • Being "confusingly similar" in a category for which a trademark is used is ample reason to bring (and win) an infringement suit. It doesn't work with homophones

        Yes it does. This is not to say that two marks being homophones automatically renders one infringing, but under in re du Pont, in considering the mark one must look at "the similarity or dissimilarity of the marks in their entireties as to appearance, sound, connotation and commercial impression."

        • Very interesting, I hadn't read that.

          And oh, how glad am I that now I have... [justia.com]

          My jaw is slack. I lost count of the low whistles I uttered involuntarily. This certainly lends credence to the pen being mightier than the sword... SO satisfying.

          That was an utterly joyful read. Thank you.

          What was the follow-up? Did duPont pay the $101,000,000, or print their scarlet letter for all to see?

          • Fine, fine. The case is In re E. I. DuPont DeNemours & Co., 476 F.2d 1357 (C.C.P.A. 1973) [google.com]. DuPont won an appeal overturning the PTO's refusal to register the RALLY mark for an automobile cleaning chemical on the basis that there was already a RALLY detergent. The case is not really interesting other than the laundry list of factors to consider for likelihood of confusion in trademark law, and it is well-known in that context:

            In testing for likelihood of confusion under Sec. 2(d), therefore, the following, when of record, must be considered:

            (1) The similarity or dissimilarity of the marks in their entireties as to appearance, sound, connotation and commercial impression.

            (2) The similarity or dissimilarity and nature of the goods or services as described in an application or registration or in connection with which a prior mark is in use.

            (3) The similarity or dissimilarity of established, likely-to-continue trade channels.

            (4) The conditions under which and buyers to whom sales are made, i. e. "impulse" vs. careful, sophisticated purchasing.

            (5) The fame of the prior mark (sales, advertising, length of use).

            (6) The number and nature of similar marks in use on similar goods.

            (7) The nature and extent of any actual confusion.

            (8) The length of time during and conditions under which there has been concurrent use without evidence of actual confusion.

            (9) The variety of goods on which a mark is or is not used (house mark, "family" mark, product mark).

            (10) The market interface between applicant and the owner of a prior mark:

            (a) a mere "consent" to register or use.

            (b) agreement provisions designed to preclude confusion, i. e. limitations on continued use of the marks by each party.

            (c) assignment of mark, application, registration and good will of the related business.

            (d) laches and estoppel attributable to owner of prior mark and indicative of lack of confusion.

            (11) The extent to which applicant has a right to exclude others from use of its mark on its goods.

            (12) The extent of potential confusion, i. e., whether de minimis or substantial.

            (13) Any other established fact probative of the effect of use.

            The point is that a junior user doesn't get to say that their mark is merel

            • Sorry, I wasn't being... anything. I fully get what you're saying about the Trademarks, and am sincerely thankful for the understanding. As someone who may someday have to defend my marks against infringement, that knowledge is extremely useful.

              Now, back to the link I posted... sure I can't remember the last time I experienced schadenfreude like that, if ever. Do you know what happened in the outcome of that case??

              • As someone who may someday have to defend my marks against infringement, that knowledge is extremely useful.

                Ah defending against trademark infringement. Here's the dirty secret of trademarks: registering a trademark is reasonably affordable, and it's a good, prudent step to take. But beyond C&D letters, most people aren't prepared to engage in expensive trademark litigation. Fees and costs might be recovered, but often aren't. And typically a solid win is merely an injunction, not money damages (which are merely compensatory anyway, not punitive). Thus their value is somewhat overblown, and they mainly see

    • 75M billionaires voted for Trump? We're doing better than I thought.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • There are countless forums on the internets that allow pseudo names and have moderators who aren't going to kick you out for not liking your ideas.

    We don't need another social network. Social networks are for cat videos. Political activism belongs on better suited platforms where it's about sharing ideas, not friends lists.

  • Dominion Voting Systems is suing Lindell for $1.3 billion [cbsnews.com] for his repeated and ongoing lies about a rigged election.

    • Because you typically have plenty of money while the court case is still ongoing. It's when the court case is over that he may find himself bankrupt.

      • The odds dominion wins and gets anything like a billion dollars are about zero.

        • by gtall ( 79522 )

          Only in your fevered nutjob dreams.

          • He may actually be right. Even if Dominion wins, the judgment will likely be much smaller. And Lindell can declare bankruptcy to avoid paying anything for years.

        • Indeed. The odds of them winning and getting a couple of hundred million bankrupting Lindell in the process are however incredibly high. Since he doesn't actually have $1bn I agree Dominion won't get that.

      • by gtall ( 79522 )

        This is why he needs the web site, to shake down the nutjobs for money to save the "conservatives". He's only following his mentor, the previous Whiner-in-Chief who has moved onto a similar scam now that his creditors are starting to close in.

  • by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 ) <gameboyrmh.gmail@com> on Friday March 12, 2021 @07:14PM (#61152674) Journal

    I was interested in reading about the story of this supercomputer that had become both self-aware and pro-human and decided to do the only thing it could to take down a President who had never done better than getting the 2nd most human votes in any election he'd ever been in, outright stealing the election through some clever and complicated scheme that should make a better move than Transcendence.

    Well sadly it turns out that QAnon morons just think you need a supercomputer to do basic database work:

    https://www.factcheck.org/2020... [factcheck.org]

    • Supercomputers are magic. They are used to cast spells just like a wand in the Harry Potter stories. Every delusional conspiracy theorist knows that the Evil Forces have secret bases with hidden super science thingies with blinky lights and other cool effects. And henchman and secret unexplainable wealth.

      If you think that major public figures literally eat babies then supercomputers barely count as decoration.

    • Well, there's still the theory that the Vatican is operating an encrypted satellite system that they used to flip Trump votes to Biden.

      • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

        Well, there's still the theory that the Vatican is operating an encrypted satellite system that they used to flip Trump votes to Biden.

        And the qcumbers have the signed Italian police affidavit (written in plain English of course) to prove it!

  • There's a backronym if ever there was one.

  • Sounds like a misspelling trap. Proper spellings of create are now tarnished.
  • that his pillow business was failing and he was trying to pivot to the classic political commentary grift made popular by guys like Ben Shapiro and Rush Limbaugh.

    Either that or he's back on the sauce.
  • A site where all the crazy people can get together.

    • And all the people who are better than the crazy people will attempt to silence and shut them down. Only better people, people like you, should be allowed to talk.
  • He's not back on crack again is he?
  • by Patent Lover ( 779809 ) on Friday March 12, 2021 @08:51PM (#61152886)
    Shoulda just gone with Parlr.
  • Can we just get it out and in the open that the real reason Trump lost was not because the election was stolen because he was a damned idiot? Trump was Trump's own worst enemy. He didn't need any enemies; he was his own greatest one. Every time he opened his damn mouth or got on Twitter and said something stupid, he proved to me that he didn't have the mentality to be the President of the United States and I'm sure that a lot of people with a functioning brain could agree with me on that.

    With that being

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