If You Thought Copyright Was A Mess On Earth, What Does It Look Like In Space?

Guy Sues Twitter For Taking Away His Twitter Handle

from the good-luck-with-that dept

Fri, May 24th 2013 11:45am — Mike Masnick

Leonard Barshack, who founded BigFoot, which was a (quite popular) internet forwarding mailing service in the dotcom era, has apparently sued Twitter for taking away his username, @SunValley and giving it to the Sun Valley resort. Barshack, who lives in Sun Valley, Idaho, claims that taking away his username was a violation of Twitter's policies, because he didn't really violate Sun Valley's trademark. As Eric Goldman notes, this lawsuit has little likelihood of succeeding. Twitter claimed that the combination of using the name @SunValley with a sun logo similar to Sun Valley's, was a non-parody impersonation of the trademark holder.

Reading through the actual filing, Barshack, who is represented by his wife, Erin Smith, who also is a plaintiff, focuses on the fact that Sun Valley doesn't indicate on its website that its logo is covered by trademark. That's about as close to meaningless as you can imagine. Not only do you not have to show that it's a registered trademark, you don't even need to have a registered trademark (though, it helps if you're seeking damages) because common law trademarks are perfectly acceptable in most cases.

But, more to the point, Twitter has no legal obligation to let you keep your account. If it wants to take away the account and shut it down, it can. If it wants to change the name of your account, it can. I just don't see what the purpose of the lawsuit is, other than that Barshack is upset. I can understand that, and I might even agree that Twitter could and should handle disputes like this differently, but that doesn't give him any basis at all for a lawsuit. Not liking something that a company does isn't a reason to sue.

143267425 Barshack v Twitter Sun Valley CV 13 293 Blaine County Dist Ct May 6 2013 (PDF)143267425 Barshack v Twitter Sun Valley CV 13 293 Blaine County Dist Ct May 6 2013 (Text)

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Filed Under: leonard barshack, sun valley, trademark, twitter, twitter handle
Companies: sun valley

14 Comments

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Bad Mood Trolling, 24 May 2013 @ 11:59am

If not liking something a company does was reason to sue, OOTB, Bob, and AJ would be filing one a day to keep the reality away.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2013 @ 12:09pm

A nice sentiment
"Not liking something that a company does isn't a reason to sue."

You must live in a different America than I do. These days, this is the *only* reason to sue.
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DH's Love Child (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 12:16pm

And they know it
"Not liking something that a company does isn't a reason to sue."

And companies know it. That's why they tow VERY close to the legal line to screw customers left and right.
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RyanNerd (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 12:23pm

In America
You can sue someone for breathing the same air you do: Oxygen infringement, or for looking drinking from the same stream, water infringement.

Doesn't mean you will not win in court. Maybe you could get lucky and make a buck or two.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2013 @ 12:41pm

His biggest mistake? Not suing from East TX.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 1:02pm

I might even agree that Twitter could and should handle disputes like this differently, but that doesn't give him any basis at all for a lawsuit.

Make it expensive to handle these disputes this way and they might do it differently.

And seriously, how many Sun Valley businesses' logos don't incorporate a sun somehow?
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dennis deems (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 1:16pm

Re:
This. I wish I could see an image of the logo he used. Twitter could simply have told him they were giving the handle to the resort under the terms of their agreement. Instead they accused him of impersonation. Someone who is accused of impersonating someone else ought at least to be given the opportunity to dispute the accusation.
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Josef Anvil (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 1:21pm

Bad Mike
You stuck up for a trademark holder. You have officially confused the trolls.
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artp (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 1:36pm

Trademarked place names
There are a LOT of trademarks that include place names. It hasn't stopped the Post Office. Yet. But it has stopped many small business owners from identifying themselves with their location. That is something that is so common across the world that it is - and should be - taken for granted. Unless someone sues you for it first.

It makes no more sense than copyrighting numbers or single letters.

I live in rural Amana, Iowa. If I start a busimess, I can't call it Amana Widget Central, because The Amana Society has the word "Amana" trademarked. It was first used when their commune came to Iowa in 1856. The word itself comes from the Bible - Amana is a place in the Golan Heights in Lebanon. When the corporation was formed in 1932, it acquired all property, separate from the church.

Now that was fine as long as Amana's boundaries were coexistent with the land owned by the Society. But later on, the Post Office redistricted and gave my family's farm an address of Amana.

This has been tested in court by a business in the village of Amana. They lost.

The law needs to be loosened up. Who should be able to own a place name?
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Nastybutler77 (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 2:00pm

Not liking something that a company does isn't a reason to sue.

I guess it is when your spouse is an attorney.
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Rex Rollman, 24 May 2013 @ 3:05pm

I kind of understand the anger this guy is feeling, especially if he was not using the account in a nefarious manner, but Twitter has the right to do this.
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yasar tekeli, 24 May 2013 @ 5:24pm

Did you know that ancient bigfoot.com forwarding service still works?
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Pragmatic, 28 May 2013 @ 6:13am

Re: Bad Mike
Worse than that, he took a position!. However will they cope?
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2013 @ 12:11am

The city of Sun Valley Idaho should be suing HIM for pretending to represent a whole city on Twitter. ;)
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