Donna Fox

…maybe some of them…

My Friend Joel Comm recently decided to leave my new favorite company, Bookwise.

Seems like he’s among a few people that recently received a cease and desist order in the mail because they purchased a domain name with Bookwise in it, in violation of the associate agreement that everyone signed when they joined.

Joel posted the reason why he decided to leave in his blog. I replied, and it’s in his approval queue… but in the event he decides not to approve my comments, or to edit them, I decided to post my response here. I think it’s a good lesson in intellectual property rights issues.

Hi Joel,

First of all I’d like to start off by saying you’re right. To ask you to switch to a domain without their trademark in it is probably shortsighted.

But I pretty much disagree with everything else you say.

Before I go into that I will say,
-Yes, I’m in Bookwise
-No, I’m not his upline and I’m not at all financially affected by Joel’s decision to quit.

Now onto my dissent…

First, if the company had potential before they asked you to switch domains, do they not still have potential?

Second, instead of taking your toys and going home, perhaps seeking to educate the company and contribute to the team would have been the more beneficial move.

Third, while the company did have a good asset in your use of their domain name, unfortunately the majority of people aren’t the good person and great marketer you are.

Legally, if the company is going to have a leg to stand on to protect it from it’s critics, it needs to enforce that policy in it’s entirety.

…and finally, you can absolutely maintain the domain name and your position with Bookwise. It’s really incredibly simple. If it’s your company that is the associate of bookwise, own the domain personally, or have your wife own it, kids own it, etc. None of those would have signed the associate agreement.

Where some see obstacles, others opportunity… readers, which person are you?