Just as I was preparing for lift-off it appears that I may have encountered an issue that will, at the very least, delay the launch of my campaign to raise $100,000 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in 2009.
My equivalent of NASA (lets just call them Corporate HQ), has grounded this initiative until further notice. It was my impression that as a participant of the Sold On A Cure campaign that I had access to graphics, logos, text and all related materials that would enable me to promote myself and my intention to make regular donations to one of our corporate charities, namely the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
Unlike most, if not all of my colleagues, I was so excited about this program and the good that it could do that I designed my entire strategy around the concept. Every sales rep promotes themselves in a similar fashion, the only differences are the amount of money they will spend on their campaign or the medium used. Some are more creative than others, but most follow the same path used by thousands of sales reps before them.
I set up this blog http://soldonacure.blogspot.com, a facebook group called Sold On A Cure (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=31048929875&ref=mf) and purchased the domain name http://www.soldonacure.ca which is directed to my real website http://www.stuartsmith.ca/soldonacure.html and I have printed over a thousand pieces of marketing material with the domain name on it.
On Friday afternoon I received a phone call from the legal department at Corporate HQ to inform me that I am infringing on their trademark "Sold On A Cure" and that by purchasing the domain name soldonacure.ca I have claimed ownership of the program and that I must shut down the site immediately and have it redirected to the official Corporate website.
Now I don't want to cause trouble with Corporate (I am not sure how posting this will help that), but I am more than a little pissed about this turn of events.
These are the facts as I see them.
1) I chose to come to this company for the Sold On A Cure campaign
2) I have invested over 100 hours of work into this program
2) I am a legitimate contributor to the Sold On A Cure campaign
3) I am licensed to use the trademarked phrase in material, graphics etc.
4) I have created and printed over 1000 pieces of marketing material in colour
5) I paid for the domain soldonacure.ca because it was available as were all other extensions with the exception of .com which is not in use.
6) I have searched the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the Canadian Trade Marks Database and, to the best of my knowledge, SOLD ON A CURE IS NOT A REGISTERED TRADEMARK!!! I only said "to the best of my knowledge" to avoid legal issues later but nowhere is the term Sold On A Cure mentioned. This same company has registered Sold For A Cure but not Sold On A Cure.
So now you will tell me that it is an unregistered trademark. Maybe, but that is irrelevant. Like I said before, I don't want to cause trouble with Corporate HQ. If I am wrong, then so be it. I can pick myself up and start again, but I would expect to be compensated for redirecting MY domain name to their website and I would like to be compensated for my time and marketing material as well.
At the same time, I am no push-over. I will not hand over this domain until I know that I am wrong, and today I am not so sure of that.
If you have any advice or opinions, please share them with me here. That said, I will delete any very negative posts that refer to Corporate HQ directly. As I said before, I am happy to be where I am and I don't want to ruffle too many feathers. I just want to be treated fairly, and I owe that same courtesy to Corporate HQ.
Thanks
Stuart - I was told I was not allowed to put a "sold on a cure" or "miracle network" riders on my for sale signs because "the Brokerage owned the listings not me and unless the entire brokerage supported the program, the riders were not permitted". This was from RECO
I'm interested to see how your campaigne progresses - good luck!
I had a similar problem when I was a real estate agent for Prudential. I registered PrudentialDaytonaBeachRealEstate domain, and got a letter from corporate that agents were not allowed to have domains with the Prudential name in them. I found this incredibly stupid. But was banking on the fact that they didn't know much about the internet. So although they told me I couldn't have the name, all I did was not have it pointed anywhere. As you know, this didn't do me any good, but I'm stubborn, so I kept the name for the time period I had purchased it, and just didn't use it.
If I were you, there is no way I would just give them my site and hard work. I'd just discontinue use ot the domains, or create another web page that says what you wrote in this blog, and assign the blog to that page.
You can always use something like Sold on THE Cure, or Sold on Cure, etc.
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