(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Nicest "Cease And Desist" letter EVER.

Jack Daniel's objects to an author using a Jack Daniel's bottle design for his book cover - and their demand is "we're flattered, but please change it in the next printing. In the current printing, we'd LIKE you to change it and we'll help pay for changing it, but we won't insist"

Comments

[tyoko.livejournal.com]

I'm not particularly fond of Jack Daniels, but that's actually kinda brave of them as a company. They may have to stand up in court and prove that this isn't dilution of their exclusive use of their trademarks and/or copyrights, potentially hurting their case in the less polite type of cease-and-desist.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I think they made their point clear: "Your use of our trademark is unacceptable and must cease and desist. We will be reasonable about the manner in which you cease and desist, given that you're an indie press author with no money"

They didn't fail to defend the brand. They didn't indicate that the brand usage was acceptable. They just didn't push as hard as they could have.

But, hey, I'm not a lawyer. And the lawyer who wrote it IS a lawyer. I'm hoping they know more about the law in question than me.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Actually, I would suggest that this strengthens their claims in the future. Because they do police their trademarks ("please change the book cover"), but they don't do it too aggressively ("in the future"), nor do they do it in a way that makes it impossible to comply ("and if you want to do it sooner we can help pay for it").

[geminiknight.livejournal.com]

The wife and I visited the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchberg, TN last year, and it was interesting. The town is postage stamp tiny, consisting primarily of about a small block and everything closes at 5pm. It's in a dry county, to boot, which is amusing. Super friendly, but it gave off a very weird 'wrong turn' vibe as well.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Above the Law (the leading disreputable gossip rag of the legal world, which--as with any other disreputable gossip rag--everybody reads in case they show up in it, either individually or their firm or their school or whatever) ran with this, too:

http://abovethelaw.com/2012/07/cease-and-desist-letter-of-the-day-captain-jack-doesnt-need-mean-lawyers/

"I think the reason why this is going around the internet today (Esquire has reprinted the full cease and desist) is that most people are shocked to see lawyers behave so reasonably.

But I think there are lots of lawyers who understand that adversarial attorneys don’t have to be a$$holes."

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall years ago that an author had put out an audiobook and referred to it as "books on tape." A while after putting his book out, he made a point of sharing the cease-and-desist letter that he got from the Books on Tape people. The letter had basically said that Books on Tape was a trademarked name, and so they had to go around defending it in order to keep the trademark up, but they didn't want to sue anyone, suggested he just change the title to an "audiobook" or something, and made it clear that the lawyers really didn't want to sue anyone over it. Basically, that author was just as surprised by friendly lawyers as anyone else.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Damn that's a polite cease-and-desist!

[skington.livejournal.com]

I saw this tweeted as "Want to get traction with your cease and desist? Follow Jack Daniels' example" - which is a way of appealing to marketing / business types, I suppose, but so totally misses the point. "Behave like a reasonable person - it's the best business strategy" but phrased as "sincerity is everything, and if you can fake that you've got it made".