OT: Trademark misuse

Hello all,

this may seem off topic, but embedded engineers these days come to experience trademark or patent related problems here and there.

I run a small electronic parts web-store and have a supplemental service for my customers to purchase items from one of major electronic distributors through me saving them S/H on small orders.

The letter came from a distributor lawyer claiming a trademark misuse and information scraping (as script on my website reads some information from the distributor's such as availability and pricing).

Beside the fact that I am flattered they hired a lawyer to deal with this, I would appreciate if someone who had former experience with similar problem would share it here. I would like to comply with their request but there is no way for me to identify their products without using their trademark. I even found some mention on "nominative use", which may fit this situation.

I will appreciate any opinion or experience.

Thanks Roman

you would think that they would welcome any means of potentially selling more goods from them, via your service.

Can't see the woods for the trees.

Reminds me years ago, I made a mention of Lego in an ad, saying how great a specific product was, and they wanted to sue me. :-)

Don...

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Don McKenzie

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USB Flash Drive interface for existing products.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid=16654

Have I got this right : You want to buy their products (not clone them) and they want to sue you ? I'd fire off a letter to the Distributor CEO, and outline the service you provide, and ask if their legal dept now runs marketing ? Do other Distis have similar product lines, you could work with ?

Is this disti listed in

?

-jg

It's Digikey.ca by the look of it Jim.

Are you accessing their product data base at all Roman? This may be the objection.

Mind you, I agree with Jim, why chase away golden gooses?

Don...

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Don McKenzie

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USB Flash Drive interface for existing products.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid=16654

In article , Roman writes

It is but..... there are few OT net police here fortunately. You should try this on comp.lang.c :-)

The first and MOST IMPORTANT point is that you do not say where you are. This is an international NG. I have no idea if you are here or somewhere foreign like the US.

The advice you need can only come form a LOCAL lawyer.

IANAL I would suggest you find out EXACTLY what their objection is. It may be simply the legal department on autopilot. When you discuss it with them (or some one higher up the chain ) that all will be sorted.

I can se that they may not like you using the stock and pricing from their web site or the use of their logo. In which case don't refer to their stock levels and do your own pricing.

In any event talk to them and then a local lawyer.

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\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills  Staffs  England     /\/\/\/\/
/\/\/ chris@phaedsys.org      www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
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Don, you found the way to check on me.

Yes, I am also accessing DK website to pull info when customer puts a product into the basket and that is the second objection - misuse of the website.

I could probably get away if I shown only recalculated price and removed any information that is directly from DigiKey but ... the best solution would be if DK acknowledged that this mode of enterprise may be actually good for them because they may sell to customers who would not consider them in the first place.

Don, how do I get to someone high enough and get them to read my letter before they toss it to the bin?

Thanks for all the responses Roman

read the "small text" always MOST distributor PROHIBIT re-sales. so you can not buy from Avnet and re-sell the same component.

the reason is quite simple: you can buy say 500 pcs. and then sell qty 1, at price above disti 500 price and BELOW disti 1 off price.

this makes any distributor angry, so sure they will protect itself against such business.

Antti

The net police on comp.lang.c are somewhat over-zealous. Mention a traditional C function that didn't make it into the standard for portability reasons (e.g. fork() ) and you'll instantly get cries of "But that isn't ANSI C!!!".

Just don't mention that comp.lang.c (and hence its charter) predate the ANSI specification. ;-)

--
Andrew Smallshaw
andrews@sdf.lonestar.org

Write them a letter offering to put their name on you web site for a fee.

"Protect" themselves against sales?!? They'd rather sell one or two units rather than 500?!?

Assume Roman immerses his received components in water by mistake and then delivers it to customers. - Not claiming he will but... Who will be blamed???

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Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
This is intended to be my personal opinion which may,
or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB

(Hi Antti :-) )

If it is a local call, try ringing them. Getting the right person may be a problem, but as you suggest, a letter may be easily binned. A phone call, they have to address.

Work on the additional Digikey sales potential offered by your site.

Mind you, it's their policy, so you will have to wear their answer.

Again reminds me of Microchip and the term "PIC". Loyal followers like Dave Benson (Square One Books), had to rewrite all of his books, so that he didn't use the term PIC.

They destroyed a lot of their support by doing that.

Don...

--
Don McKenzie

Site Map:            http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email
No More Damn Spam:   http://www.wizard-of-oz.com

USB Flash Drive interface for existing products.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid=16654

Hi Ulf,

If I buy Atmel parts from the local Atmel distributer for resale, which I do.

And I immerse my received components in water by mistake, is Atmel responsible, or is Dontronics responsible?

Don...

--
Don McKenzie

Site Map:            http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email
No More Damn Spam:   http://www.wizard-of-oz.com

USB Flash Drive interface for existing products.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid=16654

Let's assume distributors employee steps on the product but does not want to admit it and ships it out hoping the post office takes the blame.

I own my business and work hard on it, it would be very stupid from me send damaged components out and damage my name even more than few chips are worth.

Roman

Of course! That is the point and every retailer does that. Tesco buys

500pcs of bread loaves and resels them 1 by 1. Distributors themselves buy big quantities of parts and then resell smaller quantities.

Roman

... snip ...

Anything that fits any of the C standards (K&R I, K&R II, C89, C90, C95, C99) is happily accepted. Things that are specific to Windows or Unix, etc. are told to go to an appropriate newsgroup.

Fork is not traditional. It is never mentioned in any of the above C standards, except possibly K&R as a Unix specific function. It can't even be implemented in standard C. The purpose of the policy is to generate generally portable code.

--
 
 
 
 
                        cbfalconer at maineline dot net

In article , GMM50 writes

What are you on about?

QUOTE the message you are replying to or no one will know what you are on about.

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\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills  Staffs  England     /\/\/\/\/
/\/\/ chris@phaedsys.org      www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
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But not MISRA-C (which is far more widely used than C99, K&R1 or K&R2)

so what?

No it's not it is the policy of SOME not all . Many others do not mind the wider remit. It is only a few zealots who try to restrict it ot an artificial frame.

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\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills  Staffs  England     /\/\/\/\/
/\/\/ chris@phaedsys.org      www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
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I second that. Was a watching c.l.c for some 2-3 years, but reminders about topicality created so much noise that I gave up.