As a blogger who's poured a lot of heart & soul into this blog over the past (almost) 8 years I have to share with you what is happening to my friend Jessica - creator of HIDDEN SAN DIEGO.
She spent the past 4 years compiling San Diego's lesser known interesting spots off the beaten track under the name of Hidden San Diego.
Fast forward to today and there's a big magazine - San Diego Magazine - who email her about a possible interview for a big article but she didn't get the email in time so they just went ahead and took whatever they liked off her blog and published it, passing it off as their own researched discovery WITHOUT a mention of her name or site.
Very annoying... but there's more!
They then filed to TRADEMARK the name "Hidden San Diego" for themselves which means that Jessica's site is very limited in the way she can grow it in the future even though she used the name first and for years! What if she wants to take her site to print or publish a book? Those options are now not looking easy unless they lift their trademark...
Here's a link to the topic being discussed. There's been a lot of comments of support from the public and other bloggers voicing that this isn't right:
https://storify.com/edwinreal/sdmag-gets-ass-handed-to-them
And here's a very immaturely written response post from the magazine itself:
http://sandiegomagazine.com/Blogs/Cityfiles/Fall-2014/About-that-story-we-stole/
Blogs like ours were started to inspire and share the beauty of the world and it's definitely adding to the cause if more people share what's out there to be discovered, but this is the wrongest way of going about this...
Not cool! Please spread the word!
Will get all over this tomorrow morning, and we need to keep going for as long as it takes. What DESPICABLE people. And I'll forward your link. Please keep us posted!
ReplyDeleteThis is terrible! That is so shady on the magazine's part! Because she has proof of using the name for years, I would think she has a good case. Unfortunately, they have a lot of money and can afford to battle it out for a long time. That being said, I truly believe she has a case for getting their trademark reversed. I don't have any resources or suggestions to share, but I wish her the best in fighting this situation!
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