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Comment by alain94040 | Hacker News Reader

Why fight it? The problem is that you have cash in your name, and Square deals with payments. So there is possible confusion. Just change your marketed name, it will cost less than any other option you have. Unless your name is so critical to the success of your game that you can't change it, but I assume it's not.

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Why was Square trademark granted after CodeSquare's trademark then? Square deals with computers, so technically its also a violation.

Or better yet, FourSquare. Square has a trademark[0] on using "Square" when describing "computer software for determining and mapping the physical locations of consumers;", yet they were given the trademark, even though there could be clear confusion, based on the legal wording.

The obvious answer is that Square has lawyers that found all the possible ways they could trademark the word "Square", even if the connection is highly suspect. Now they are using it to take down companies that cannot afford to defend themselves.

[0]http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4809:16h...

So your advice is...?

My advice was specific and achieves the goal of not going bankrupt for a startup. I have been through lawsuits before and I know how expensive and distracting they can be.

Yeah, I'm not disagreeing with your advice, nor was I the down-voter. It just sucks and I completely understand the author's frustration. Money wins in court though.

Crazypro / alain94040 - thats the concern that we are facing first of all we dont want to spend money on something that we believe will not achieve what we planned to do, however we love our Brand and we dont want to give it up! thats why we are fighting for it.

"Money wins in court though." - I hope not this time around! :)

Certainly the easiest is a re-brand. In fact, I'd approach Square with "we're willing to fight this, and it's going to cost both of us a lot of money...but with a proper financial incentive from Square to cover the costs associated with re-branding, we might be willing to entertain that option" (written in lawyer-speak, of course). An acquaintances company was basically paid mid six figures to change their name in somewhat similar circumstances, and they used it as a opportunity to do some interesting things, marketing wise.

Hi Kj3, we have discussed this in one of our first conversation with Square, however Square first considered this option and then just disappeared for a while to then come back to sue us!

So you substantiated their lawsuit by agreeing with them that there could be brand confusion, by offering a compromise. Unfortunate.

Spoom - We never agreed that our brands could be confused, because we are nowhere close to what Square does. Games and processing is very different. But to avoid costly lawsuits, losing focus and if the compensation would be right (that would cover all our re-branding costs - 6 figures) we would consider it...However i must underline that Square started using the brand "Square Cash" just a couple months ago, which makes it very clear why Square really wanted our brand name. as an example they use the email: cash@square.com.

Dude, just rebrand. You're obsessing over a name that your fans probably aren't as crazy about.

Don't get me wrong, I understand where you're coming from and at a glance it looks like you're in the right, but their lawyers probably saw an opportunity when you provided a compromise.

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