IMDb orders imdbAPI to shut down or else(imdbapi.com)
imdbapi.com
IMDb orders imdbAPI to shut down or else
http://imdbapi.com/
8 comments
I was hoping same as well
Sorry, I personally don't think you have a case. IMDb is a very strong trademark in my mind, I don't think you could get away with using it at the start of your domain name.
Not having used the API, but seeing that does use movie information (using rotten tomatoes). I think that it's going to be difficult to claim fair use of quite a distinctive acronym in the same realm.
Paying a lawyer for an hour to confirm this will save the author of the API time and effort.
Rename it and move on, be your own brand. There's no need to coattail if you have a great product.
Paying a lawyer for an hour to confirm this will save the author of the API time and effort.
Rename it and move on, be your own brand. There's no need to coattail if you have a great product.
That is rubbish!
imdbapi.com could refer to, like he said in his response, literally thousands of different acronyms, such as the new website title: "Integration Manager Design Baseline Automated Physical Inventory" - amusing ;)
Who's to say it isn't for an Instant Messaging Database API service?
"The disclaimer you have added doesn’t change this result. First, ordinary consumers don’t read fine print and so the potential for confusion is unaffected. Second, even a prominent disclaimer doesn’t allow you to adopt a competing product’s name as your own."
This is also rubbish as he clearly isn't adopting a competing products name as his own.
IANAL but I think so long as he isn't using the IMDB name or logo, they haven't got a leg to stand on. Having their trademark somewhere within the domain name is not enough.
imdbapi.com could refer to, like he said in his response, literally thousands of different acronyms, such as the new website title: "Integration Manager Design Baseline Automated Physical Inventory" - amusing ;)
Who's to say it isn't for an Instant Messaging Database API service?
"The disclaimer you have added doesn’t change this result. First, ordinary consumers don’t read fine print and so the potential for confusion is unaffected. Second, even a prominent disclaimer doesn’t allow you to adopt a competing product’s name as your own."
This is also rubbish as he clearly isn't adopting a competing products name as his own.
IANAL but I think so long as he isn't using the IMDB name or logo, they haven't got a leg to stand on. Having their trademark somewhere within the domain name is not enough.
Pick a better acronym if you want to have a shot at winning.
My suggestion was:
I Must Design Better API
I Must Design Better API
This hurts regarding the history of IMDB which had large portions contributed by volunteers in the early days:
"Users were invited to contribute data which they may have collected and verified, on a volunteer basis, which greatly increased the amount and types of data to be stored or for which sections needed to be added. As the site thereby grew in content exponentially," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imdb#History_before_website
So IMDB is a community effort that has been commercialized.
Would be nice if the current 'owners' would respect the history of their own site and play nice with another community effort in the same field.
"Users were invited to contribute data which they may have collected and verified, on a volunteer basis, which greatly increased the amount and types of data to be stored or for which sections needed to be added. As the site thereby grew in content exponentially," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imdb#History_before_website
So IMDB is a community effort that has been commercialized.
Would be nice if the current 'owners' would respect the history of their own site and play nice with another community effort in the same field.
While I agree they don't particularly play nice with the community, they do still let people download the raw data for non-commercial use at least. Not that they promote that fact much. http://www.imdb.com/interfaces/
We all know that big brand names has early access to new released domain names to protect their name and avoid domain squatting - they pay premium for that and this sounds fair. But its nothing illegal in having imdbxxx.com - which btw is still available. I might be wrong but if this is the case - imdb (in this case) should make sure that they own all domains , which might be associated with their brand (like imdbapi.com for example). Not securing them and requesting free transfer from anyone who dared to buy one isn't anything else but corporate bulling.
All following domains should be handed to Amazon too:
I.com
IM.com
IMD.com
IMD.BE
IMDBA.com
IMDBAP.com
AYEMDEEBEE.com
I'm no lawyer, but I hope you get someone to help you out. However, given this case of giant corporation versus hardworking developer, the former usually wins.