I recently wrote an Ask HN post[1] about obtaining my trademarked X & YouTube handles (neither is registered by a user/both are being “protected” from being registered by the respective platforms).
Since 2022 I’ve worked with legal/support teams and successfully climes my trademarked handle/username from:
Meta (IG & Threads)
Microsoft (GitHub)
Reddit
TikTok
Amazon (Twitch)
Kick
Similarly, no user had registered my trademarked name on those platforms either, but I couldn’t register it because they were all “protecting” the name/brand from being registered.
Of note, Meta’s legal team was the most responsive and transferred me the accounts within 24 hours of sending my Trademark Notice, following a couple back and forth email confirmations.
Unlike every other platform a Discord user did in fact register my trademark and is holding himself out as “CEO of {trademark}” with the “TM” trademark emoji following the trademark. After authenticating me as the owner of the trademark Discord’s legal team concluded they could not determine who the actual owner was and informed me I would have to sue the user and give them a copy of the Court Order. Really bizarre they would throw their user under the bus, not consider I could also name them a defendant, and that Discord was confused as to the owner of the trademark meets the legal burden of proving trademark infringement (likelihood of confusion standard).
I detailed my frustration in the post of not being able to actually speak to a human at X or YouTube, which would no doubt immediately resolve my requests like every other platform. I even noted in a comment the likelihood I’d have to file lawsuits to actually speak to a human which I believe would result in an immediate resolution/settlement.
Perhaps I will sue X, YouTube and discord, but I really shouldn’t have too and these companies should pay damages when a customer can show no human support was ever given.
If you sue them, what kind of tort is it? I wouldn't think these sites are under any obligation to give you the name, as long as they aren't assisting someone else to use your name?
In my case I would file 2 claims: 1) trademark infringement, and 2) trademark dilution. However, I’ll take a look at these cases and see what claims they filed and maybe supplement if anything applies.
Trademark infringement typically requires “likelihood of confusion”, except where the trademark is famous then there can be trademark dilution even when there is no “likelihood of confusion.”
My trademark is famous, and it’s evidenced by the fact that YouTube and X (and all the other platforms) reserved and protected my trademarked name from being registered and used.
The legal argument would be these platforms are infringing by reserving the name and diluting the famous trademark by not allowing the trademarked account to exist on their platforms.
YouTube and X don’t want to be in Court explaining why they reserve trademarked names and don’t release them to the trademark owner, so it’s just a matter of getting a human involved to get it resolved.
How are you detecting the reservation? I have a couple of trademark names and on some platforms there are no users with those names, yet they won't allow registration. Is that the trademark reservation at work? Or are there other reasons the registration would be blocked? (assuming the trademarks are very normal and not something suitable for censorship)
Each platform has their own rules for names, off the top of my head I don’t think X will allow registration of 4 (maybe 3) characters or less any longer, even if it’s available. So without prying I couldn’t give you my opinion about your mark(s).
In the case of X, I can use wayback machine and show the username did exist for a month when the platform launched (2006 I think) and then was removed from that point to the present. YouTube handles are a new feature only about a year old, and I have been trying to register it from day 1, so I have personal knowledge the handle has never existed, and they also prevent registration of any variations @{trademark}001.
I also have evidence that the other major platforms (Meta/Instagram/Threads, GitHub, Reddit, Twitch, TikTok, etc…) were reserving this trademark and released it to me upon showing I’m the trademark owner.
It’s strong enough to bring a civil lawsuit where the standard is “more likely than not” anyway. Again I doubt they’d want any employee of consequence being deposed under oath and testifying why they reserved it and refuse to turn it over to the trademark owner as many others have done.
Since 2022 I’ve worked with legal/support teams and successfully climes my trademarked handle/username from:
Meta (IG & Threads) Microsoft (GitHub) Reddit TikTok Amazon (Twitch) Kick
Similarly, no user had registered my trademarked name on those platforms either, but I couldn’t register it because they were all “protecting” the name/brand from being registered.
Of note, Meta’s legal team was the most responsive and transferred me the accounts within 24 hours of sending my Trademark Notice, following a couple back and forth email confirmations.
Unlike every other platform a Discord user did in fact register my trademark and is holding himself out as “CEO of {trademark}” with the “TM” trademark emoji following the trademark. After authenticating me as the owner of the trademark Discord’s legal team concluded they could not determine who the actual owner was and informed me I would have to sue the user and give them a copy of the Court Order. Really bizarre they would throw their user under the bus, not consider I could also name them a defendant, and that Discord was confused as to the owner of the trademark meets the legal burden of proving trademark infringement (likelihood of confusion standard).
I detailed my frustration in the post of not being able to actually speak to a human at X or YouTube, which would no doubt immediately resolve my requests like every other platform. I even noted in a comment the likelihood I’d have to file lawsuits to actually speak to a human which I believe would result in an immediate resolution/settlement.
Perhaps I will sue X, YouTube and discord, but I really shouldn’t have too and these companies should pay damages when a customer can show no human support was ever given.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40030899