Yahoo owns Tumblr.
Tumblr is notorious for being down often; Yahoo’s $1.1 billion acquisition has a long way to go to be considered a reliable blogging platform.
That’s exactly what Zach Inglis from London, UK, thought and he established IsTumblrDown.com.
By pinging the popular blog destination, Inglis’s web site has been offering a valuable service to millions of impatient Tumblr users who want to get their daily dosage of Tumblr pr0n.
On the other hand, Tumblr’s legal team didn’t like that and they sent a cease and desist letter to Zach Inglis, who decided to turn off the service, pronto.
“Your selection and use of the aforementioned domain name(s) creates the impression that your website is an authentic Tumblr website, when in fact it is not. The Tumblr name and mark is fanciful and strong and entitled to a broad scope of protection. There is no other reason for registering a domain name incorporating the Trademarks other than to trade off the established goodwill in the famous name and mark TUMBLR. Consumers are likely to be confused that the domain(s) is somehow associated with or sponsored by Tumblr when it is not.”
Tumblr’s legal team asked the registrant of IsTumblrDown.com to disable the web site, refrain from selling the domain and let it expire naturally.
It is apparent that Zach’s use of the domain constitutes “fair use” of the Tumblr trademark; but according to Zach, the web site wasn’t put together for profit and he doesn’t need to deal with the almighty lawyers of Tumblr/Yahoo, so Zach decided to pull the web site.
In a shocking retraction, however, Tumblr decided that Zach was actually offering a valuable service and decided to let him be:
Dear Zach,
On August 26, 2013, you incorrectly received a letter from Tumblr, Inc. (“Tumblr”) Global Brand Protection, stating that your domain was registered in violation of Tumblr’s intellectual property rights.
We deeply apologize for our mistake. Our legal department very recently started using a third party vendor to assist us in pursuing trademark infringers and, due to an error in our new process, your domain was mistakenly caught in the cross-fire.
So, please disregard any previous correspondence you received regarding this matter. We feel terrible about this, and we do hope you’ll consider running your site again.
Sorry again for the inconvenience.
Regards, Ali Kazemi
Legal Counsel
Tumblr, Inc.
Great news for Zach, who operates his personal web site at ZachInglis.com.
This post is 100% true!
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Very professional of tumblr. Thanks for sharing