Entrepreneur Magazine Claiming It Owns The Word Entrepreneur?

from the trademark-madness dept

Thu, Oct 14th 2010 3:46am — Mike Masnick

A writer/speaker who set up a website at entrepreneurology.com apparently received a cease and desist letter from Entrepreneur Magazine, who is also opposing his attempt to trademark the term. Nice of Entrepreneur Magazine to be so supporting of other entrepreneurs, huh? The guy has preemptively sued the magazine's publisher to have it declared that he's not infringing:

While the lawsuit does feel a bit like the entrepreneurology guy marketing himself, it still doesn't explain Entrepreneur Magazine's silly cease and desist letter. And, of course, the end result is that the guy ends up getting a lot more attention anyway.

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Filed Under: entrepreneur, entrepreneurology, trademark

20 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 4:04am

The art of the Entrepreneur in developing publicity for magazines and startups is clearly beyond some people, as is the old adage about no publicity being bad publicity ...
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Darq Helmatt, 14 Oct 2010 @ 4:19am

Change the name of the blog to Monster Ontrapernewer. Not that big of a deal.

-Stevee Joebs
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 4:32am

Send Sheri Davis to talk to those guys.
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mike allen (profile), 14 Oct 2010 @ 4:56am

both attention seeking ?
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Shanoboy (profile), 14 Oct 2010 @ 5:08am

Hold up...
If Entrepreneur Magazine owns the word "Entrepreneur" and no one else could really use it, wouldn't that essentially make the word worthless?
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abc gum, 14 Oct 2010 @ 5:19am

People Magazine owns people
Life Magazine owns life
Time Magazine owns time

It's all becoming very clear now ...
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 5:21am

Dibs
Yes, they now own the "E" word. They called it so they own it. Please remove all occurrences of it from this article and your website before legal action is initiated.

Thank you.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 5:49am

More turds that don't understand!
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NullOp, 14 Oct 2010 @ 5:51am

Owns what...
I will be copyrighting the word "And" plus all its variants. You will ALL be paying me big bucks soon....

Sound stupid? Its no stupider than than the meat of this story!
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- Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 7:28am
  
  Re: Owns what...
  It's going to have to be "nd", I've already copyright all the vowels.
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  - TtfnJohn (profile), 14 Oct 2010 @ 7:59am
    
    Re: Re: Owns what...
    I've got a trademark and copyright on the letter E. Try writing much in English without using that letter!
    
    And, I've applied to the USPTO for a patent on it as well!
    
    So there!
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 6:37am

That's fine. After Reading their Legal Document they only claim ownership to the word 'ENTREPENEUR', not 'Entrepeneur' or 'entrepeneur'. I hope they didn't pay that lawyer.
They have a web site you know. I sent them emails protesting about their lawsuit. They are losers with an ad before you can enter their site. Losers with useless information. Did anyone ever make money from that mag. NOT. These mags are rags.
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- Newdal Supe, 14 Oct 2010 @ 7:00am
  
  Re:
  Spellcheck?
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Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 14 Oct 2010 @ 6:50am

To Entrepreneur:
Nice job showing your target audience that you don't know how to innovate and instead are run by a bunch of lawyers who only know how to litigate.
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RobShaver (profile), 14 Oct 2010 @ 7:58am

But who owns the word "magazine"?
What is the origin of the word "magazine" and who used it first? Anybody with access to OED, please look it's first use up. Maybe then Entrepreneur Magazine can get a C&D too.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 8:12am

Merriam-Webster
Dictionary
en·tre·pre·neur noun
\ˌäⁿn-trə-p(r)ə-ˈnər, -ˈn(y)u̇r\
Definition of ENTREPRENEUR

: one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise
— en·tre·pre·neur·ial adjective
— en·tre·pre·neur·ial·ism noun
— en·tre·pre·neur·ial·ly adverb
— en·tre·pre·neur·ship noun
Origin of ENTREPRENEUR

French, from Old French, from entreprendre to undertake — more at enterprise
First Known Use: 1852
DICTIONARIES BEING COPYRIGHTED COULD SUE FOR INFRINGEMENT AND SHOULD WIN HANDS DOWN. Of course you would have to have a sane Judge to make a righteous decision based on reality.
Shouldn't this really be a trademark issue? I'm confused...
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RobShaver (profile), 14 Oct 2010 @ 8:22am

This is not new for Entrepreneur Media
It is reported that they're going after everybody that uses the "E" word. This article in Business Review lists some other folks that have encountered EMI. Any subscribers reading here? Vote with your dollars; don't buy or subscribe. Don't patronize their advertisers. (How would you know who they are? Check the web site maybe.)
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Will Sizemore (profile), 14 Oct 2010 @ 8:41am

So, I wonder how many corporate lawyers have the legal right to conduct business like this without the direct approval of the CEO. I wonder how many of them trade stocks in competitors and pull these stunts to affect the prices they buy and sell at.

I'm sure that the judges presiding over these cases are stockholders too.
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vbevan (profile), 14 Oct 2010 @ 10:28pm

Wait, did I read this wrong?
A writer/speaker who set up a website at entrepreneurology.com apparently received a cease and desist letter from Entrepreneur Magazine, who is also opposing his attempt to trademark the term.

Wait, why are we angry at Entrepreneur Magazine? Doesn't the above say that the guy owning entrepreneurology.com is trying to trademark the term Entrepreneur? If so, I'd be doing the same thing as a company, to avoid the possibility of later being sued by the guy owning the trademark.
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- Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2010 @ 10:28am
  
  Re: Wait, did I read this wrong?
  Doesn't the above say that the guy owning entrepreneurology.com is trying to trademark the term Entrepreneur?
  
  No. So, yes, you apparently did read it wrongly.
  
  Entrepreneur Magazine already has a trademark on "Entrepreneur Magazine", so they're in no danger of being sued by the holder of a trademark on "entrepreneurology". They're just trying to expand their trademark to cover other things and block competition in the market for anything having to do with entrepreneurs or entrepreneurship.
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