The blog buzz ignited by last week's real estate blog christening at McGraw Hill is catching fire. The media giant mistakenly usurped a corporate blogger's identity and sparked curious speculation in the most dignified reaches of the Blogosphere, including Steve Rubel. Will the mega publisher forego its claim on the title Hot Property? We hope that they will do just that, and leave the original creator of the title to blog about the real estate market, and extinguish worries about the puzzle, the costs, and the drain of an intellectual property right bout.
There are countless bloggers who take their craft seriously and offer valuable information. Bloggers spend hours writing, designing, researching, and publishing their Blogs. Most are not running to the trademark office. Many of us use a Creative Commons license and assume a reasonable level of cooperation among our peers.
Nobody has suggested that McGraw-Hill's taking of the Hot Property title was purposeful. We all assume that it was an honest mistake. Can McGraw-Hill keep the title and scuttle the original bloggers right to the title? They probably can. If they have trademarked the name they probably have the legal clout to do just that. Does that make it right? Absolutely not!
If BusinessWeek continues to lay claim to the Hot Property title we are afraid that it will open the door to other large companies that will survey the market, find superb blog properties that have been cultivated by talented bloggers, and usurp their titles and whatever other intellectual assets they can legally acquire.
UPDATE More Links: The Trademark Blog, The Law Advisor
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