Blog
Phone and Company
April 1st, 2008
We have changed the name of the company that runs/owns Attenalert. Originally Attenalert Ltd, the new company is called Cold Blue Labs Ltd. Everything about Attenalert will remain the same as before, with Attenalert instead being a trading style of Cold Blue Labs. The primary reason for this is to allow us to expand into other areas without being restricted by the name. For example, over the weekend we released a skin for the Invision Power Board forum software optimised for the Apple iPhone.
In addition to this, we now provide a phone number on the contact page should you wish to call us!
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How to search trademarks
March 26th, 2008
One of the hardest things to do is come up with the name for a company or product that not only sounds good, but hasn’t already been used and has a decent set of domain names available. There’s also one more thing to think about - has the name been registered as a trademark?
In all likelyhood, if you type your name into Google and don’t get any relevant results then it probably hasn’t been registered. However, you cannot be entirely certain as a company may have registered the name for future use and so it is important to check the various trademark registers to be sure.
A trademark search can be done yourself using self service online tools or you can pay a legal advisor to do it for you. Obviously, you will have to pay for the latter and although a lawyer will be able to give you specific advice and do a more detailed search through the relevant IP offices, we have found that if you combine Google, the availability of domain names and no results from an online trademark search, you’re usually fine!
So where can you search? Unfortunately there is no single worldwide trademark registry so you need to do searches in a number of key locations where you intend to do business. At the very least, this should include a UK and US search.
It is important to understand how trademarks work, in particular how the different classes relate to how a trademark can be used and opposed. A trademark is generally registered in one or more classes and Person A may use the same trademark as Person B if it is in a different class (and is not already registered and is not opposed). This means that when you search, you should perform the search across all classes or in classes relevant to your intended use. See this cross search guide from the UK Intellectual Property Office for information.
So where can you do the searches?
- Australia - Trade Mark Search
- Canada - Intellectual Property Office
- Germany - Patent and Trade Mark Office
- Ireland - Patents Office
- UK - Intellectual Property Office
- US - Patent and Trademark Office
Finally, the Singapore Government provide a free service called SurfIP that allows you to search a wide range of trademark databases simultaneously - Canada, China, European, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taipei, Thailand, UK, US and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
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We’re live!
March 10th, 2008
Attenalert is now live and accepting new signups! There is a 7 day free trial so why not give it a go?! If you have any questions, simply e-mail support@attenalert.com and we’ll get right back to you.
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Launch Monday
March 8th, 2008
In less than 48 hours we will be launching Attenalert…see you on Monday!
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Minor improvements
March 3rd, 2008
Although we have not yet launched, we are still using Attenalert ourselves and as a result of our own use, just released a small feature addition.
Previously, all the sites were displayed in a big table (with paging) regardless of which word they were discoveries for. Now, you can filter the table by word. Obviously, if you only have 1 word then there’s no option to do this but as we began to track more words and had a large number of results, it became apparent that it is important to be able to do that.
And now you can. It is very quick and easy for us to add these minor features and hopefully they will all add to the great user experience we’re trying to build, based on our own use even before customers get a go!
Before:
After:
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What’s the delay?
March 2nd, 2008
We have been ready to launch for a week or two now but are still waiting on our internet merchant account from our payment handling bank. We’ve been on the phone to them every day to try and chase it up but to no effect but we’re cautiously hoping this will be the week Attenalert launches.
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Action Plan: Reputation
February 29th, 2008
So you have found someone complaining about you, your company or your product (hopefully using Attenalert when it launches!), what do you do next? In the book “Radically Transparent” by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss, a 7 step action plan is set out which explains the best way to handle such a situation and it has been published on the book’s accompanying website:
1. Check the facts
2. Determine the impact
3. Bring together trusted counsel
4. Understand your detractor
5. Decide on the appropriate response
6. Host the conversation
7. After the dust has settled
Whilst it is certainly a good plan, a lot of the steps seem to be common sense. The crucial factor of course is not rushing into responding, which really applies to any situtation, and thinking carefully about the ramifications of your reply. This is much more likely to be of use to larger companies which have set PR policies than smaller businesses or individually but that said, attacks on reputation can happen to anyone and it is important to have an idea of what to do next even if there is no formal plan.
The book, Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online (to give it its full title), is not out in the UK until 13 March but is available in the US right now. Once our (UK) Amazon order arrives, you can be sure of a full review.
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Sunday Times: Reputation
February 24th, 2008
The Sunday Times has an interesting article on reputation management and mentions a couple of companies that offer services to help recover when someone has hijacked your name in search engines.
Although not an in-depth “howto”, it does have a few tips about how to be proactive in protecting your name including registering as many domain names as possible that contain your name including variations containing swearing. It is interesting to note that the companies mentioned charge a huge amount to help you, the figures quoted mention a fee of £900 GBP (~$1750 USD)!
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No Take Downs
February 22nd, 2008
One of the potential uses Attenalert has is to monitor trademark usage. Indeed, it is particularly suited to that because trademarks tend to be single words or short phrases and Attenalert can discover where they are being referenced online.
Once you own a trademark, it is important to enforce your rights under it otherwise you could lose them. This is particularly the case if your trademark becomes a commonly used word. Companies such as Google and Xerox have this problem because of the popularity of their brand names.
One possible solution is going down the legal route of sending take down notices, also known as cease and desist. Unsurprisingly, this will often scare the recipient into complying but it is not always the best option for that very reason, as the Church of Scientology has recently found out with regards to the leaked video.
A better solution could be to try and work with the site that is (mis)using your trademark to come to some kind of arrangement whereby you can receive a link back from their site but at the same time enforce your trademark usage guidelines. Attributor have posted a useful set of 10 reasons why you should avoid the legal route where possible. It is in relation to copied content but the same ideas no doubt apply for trademarks too.
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Getting Ready
February 16th, 2008
We’re getting ready to publicly launch Attenalert - servers are configured, the application is written and references are being discovered. All we need to do is complete testing and hook up to our payment processing systems! Everything should be ready by the end of this month so stay tuned…
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