NextDoor.cm owner has claimed NextDoor.com stole his business idea.
Neighborhood social networking site NextDoor.com has sued the owner of NextDoor.cm — but this isn’t a simple allegation of cybersquatting.
The company filed the suit (pdf) in U.S. District Court in San Francisco to put an end to what it says are baseless claims that NextDoor.com stole its business idea from defendant Raj Abhyanker.
You can read some details about Abhyanker’s previous claims here.
The suit alleges that on the day after NextDoor.com publicly launched, Abhyanker sent an email to NextDoor.com’s co-founder, in which he expressed an interest in working with and being a co-founder of the company. NextDoor.com didn’t respond.
On November 10, 2011, Abhyanker sued NextDoor.com, claiming in part that he came up with the idea for a local social networking service in 2005. Abhyanker’s previous business name, under which he planned to launch the service, was FatDoor.
In December 2011 Abhyanker applied for a trademark registration for “NextDoor”. NextDoor alleges he also registered the domain name Nextdoor.cm at the same time, along with NextLawn.com and NextYard.com
He also filed two notices of opposition against NextDoor.com’s own trademark applications, according to the lawsuit.
He later sent a notice to NextDoor claiming its use of NextDoor.com violated the anticybersquatting consumer protection act and also threatened filing a UDRP.
So NextDoor.com is taking the proactive approach now. It’s asking the court for declaratory relief, and also throwing in its own charge of cybersquatting for Abhyanker’s registration of NextDoor.cm.
With he potential for a $100,000 judgment for cybersquatting, NextDoor hopes to put an end to Abhyanker’s claims.
This is why .com should be the only domain extension.
Why does “Abhyanker” sound like some exercise device sold on late night TV?
I see that I’m a bit late to the party but as a writer and editor, I’m hoping that the author of this article, Andrew Allemann, has by now learned the importance of the tools of the trade to an individual or an organization. I’m referring specifically to our responsibility we have as authors/writers to be accurate in what we write; it follows that our editors and proofreaders or spell checkers.
From the headline to the end of this article one of the parties is referred to as NextDoor.com. Even in this article about the ownership of a business, this writer mistakenly writes the company’s name, Nextdoor.com, as NextDoor.com.
Anyone who regularly uses word processing software or the text features within a search engine, for example, should ferret out the program’s method of adding words to its word list or dictionary and use it often.
The name of a business entity, any business entity, is precious. This article is about that. Every successful business has its own look, beginning with its name; Nextdoor, with that spelling and that capitalization is its legal name. it behooves any serious writer to take a second to add the name of each product, service or entity, including the names of people, to the spelling list or “dictionary” (which it isn’t), before the writing begins. Preparing to write, whether filling the fountain pen, sharpening the pencils, or buying new ribbons and typing paper have largely gone by the wayside. Many of the tasks of writing are now automatic. Many, not all.