"What I’m really interested in is developing the community and service, and – on a bigger scale – the open web. I’m not interested in pouring my time and resources into an open-ended legal confrontation."
Your legal opinions aside, his choice is quite reasonable. Not everyone wants to fight the good fight. Or when you were cutting them some slack last week and emailing free advice, did you also have your wallet open for his legal fund?
I do understand your point of view. Ignoring it was a valid option. However, if he ignored it and the other side actually filed suit, now you have real costs without regard to the suit's merit. These guys made a decision to not let this tie up any further time or potential cost. It does feel like they rolled over too easily, but hey, its their decision.
I have been involved in court cases. Here is my experience: you don't win. You don't get your money back for legal costs. At best, you get to decide when to walk away, let go, and get back to your business if your lucky enough that its still viable after all the energy and money you put into the fight.
Courts do not decide to "accept a suit". A judge acts on "evidence" presented by each side, they do not provide their own advice or due diligence in the case. A plaintiff files and the other side defends. Both sides immediately assume costs. If the court does throw the case out for lack of standing, jurisdiction, or other preliminary matter, ok, the defendant "won" that round, but you don't get your money or time back. If you want your money back, you have to either counter sue or petition for it. This puts more time and money at risk.
Its a very tough call to decide when to give up or fight. This guy made the decision that his name was not the most important aspect of his business and decided not to fight very early. I think he acted on common sense. Sure he could have waited and gotten drawn into a suit. He decided not to and that is a sign he wants to focus on his product and users, not worry about a moral victory over a name.
there should be a co-operative you can join to be able to get good legal backing so the little guy doesn't have to give in because nothing else makes economic sense. a legal system where by default "might makes right" is pretty scary. when the little guy rolls over to most demands from the big guy because he doesn't have the resources to fight, it completely distorts how a civil society is supposed to operate. you see this in many different fields and yet, very little has been done lately by the little guy to fight it.
I tweeted the other day about something similar. I think there are many cases where basic legal resource could save a lot of heartache.
For really "cookie cutter" situations, ideally there'd be something in-between pro-bono, and "make an appointment at my full rate."
A directory of cool lawyers, basically.
Jay Parkinson, MD is a cool medical doctor who is really trying to change medicine, and does appointments over the Internet for example, people could pay with Paypal. What if lawyers did the same?
http://jayparkinsonmd.com/
