A post by O'Reilly Media regarding their cease and desist demand letter issued over the use of "Web 2.0" in a conference name could have been handled better.
There is a saying that one cannot unring a bell. The
As a great writer once put it, several things happened at once; these contributed to the self-administered PR black eye O'Reilly the company and the person sports now:
- Tim O'Reilly took what has been described as a "rare" vacation before CMP sent out the demand letter, so he may not have even known it was going to happen
- IT@Cork had invited him in February to speak at the conference, an invitation which he declined, but raised no concern about the conference name at that time
- O'Reilly's knowledge of the conference well in advance of its scheduled timeframe was not conveyed to CMP Media's lawyers
- CMP's follow-up to IT@Cork came in the form of documented the start of the kerfuffle by posting CMP/O'Reilly's first letter, commented on the second letter on his site:
Is it just me or are they still not getting it? They are asking us to sign a document saying we won't hold any future events with the term Web 2.0 in the title. If we run an event on Microsoft Windows, would Microsoft would send us a cease and desist letter for using their trademark in the title? Of course not, how is this any different?
And why should we sign a document tying ourselves to that?
It's difficult to envision a scenario where Microsoft would greet the organizers of a "Windows Half-Day Conference" with legal threats. It should also be noted that the Web 2.0 service mark is under a pending application for registration, which has not yet been granted in the US or the EU.
The first post on the O'Reilly Radar website about the IT@Cork brouhaha also noted that CMP media had contacted another organization about a The Potomac Officers Club, a non-profit group like IT@Cork.
Unlike IT@Cork, the Potomac Officer Club consists of numerous C-level executives from the Washington, DC area. People like Jack Welch and Charles Schwab stop by to give chats to the Club's members.
A couple of law firms sponsor the Club, and the membership certainly know a few attorneys. Their response to the CMP cease and desist will be interesting to see. Organizations that hold their Web 2.0 conferences at a
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O'Reilly Admits Mishandling Web 2.0 Issue
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