CatalystFactory

Just checked my dictionary for the most rudimentary definition:

entrepreneur |ˌäntrəprəˈnoŏr; -ˈnər| noun

a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

--- I think your article might be a bit narrow at least for how I read, hear, and associate meaning with the word.

That said, I respect your opinion.

Hi Lelele,

The first thing I would do is check your name is in fact unique. Just because you registered the name icoke.com, .net, .org, etc... doesn't mean you own a trademark (common or otherwise) and doesn't mean you aren't infringing on someone else's trademark.

The next step would be to weigh the cost/benefit of going through the trademark process. It's not very costly, but is time consuming.

Is your startup up and running? Filing for a trademark for a service or product that doesn't exist yet adds more complexity and cost to the process.

While I wouldn't suggest running to your nearest trademark attorney or god forbid LegalZoom, I would reach out the lawyers you do know and ask them about it.

(Disclaimer: None of the above is legal advice or forms an attorney client relationship. The statements above are only for informational purposes and should be used at your own risk.)

The post/link doesn't seem to work :( update?

If you formed your entity correctly (I assume this is where your $3k debt to your lawyer came in), you likely can declare bankruptcy for your company and take no personal liability.

You might want to find family and friends who can loan you the money without interest.

Can you sell the domain?

Just curious, how did you get so much debt from your lawyer.

Hope it works out and best of luck.

My friend runs: http://www.syncplicity.com/ - might be of use.

So basically Twilio in India?

Details? Place/time/event/victim?

(1) You should never "ignore" a cease and desist letter. I would have it reviewed by an experienced lawyer in the field perhaps over lunch (to save on legal costs) and get their input on the risk and likelihood of getting sued. Then I'd go back and make a business decision on whether that risk makes sense vs. giving your users what they want.

(2) If they can ban you via IP, they should be doing that already. I wonder why they aren't.

(Disclaimer: None of the above is legal advice or forms an attorney client relationship. The statements above are only for informational purposes and should be used at your own risk.)

@mrbird

This is very case dependent on what your site or app does.

Should it stop you from building it? Probably not.

If you don't incorporate or incorporate improperly, you'll likely be personally liable.

There are tax and legal consequences for launching without incorporating. You can always form later - but what is "ok" is again case dependent.

It would make sense to run your concerns by a lawyer or a community like HN, but to help we'd need to know more.

(Disclaimer: None of the above is legal advice or forms an attorney client relationship. The statements above are only for informational purposes and should be used at your own risk.)

@Staunch

It could be expensive either way, but being properly incorporated potentially will protect you from personal liability.

I love when MSM rehashes and restates the obvious. What? Paypal wants to dominate the market they are in?! Shocker.

What will be be interesting is if one of the major payment processors lowers transaction costs in the micro-payment space precipitating a race to the bottom situation.

I'd use http://libyanspider.com. When I was looking to register they were the only non-super-sketchy registrar.

There a lot of people in this space. The problem is that how companies deal with DMCA request varies a lot.

A lot of PR capital can be wasted on one bad DMCA complaint gone wrong.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but where do you get $250K revenue from?

Also, who is using these layer styles now and are your layer styles protected by IP?

The styles look a little like those I would find on Word's word art function.

These were the thoughts that popped into my head.

Good luck!

I'd agree with Dan, but would suggest getting an independent review of critical documents.

I'd also wonder what the lawyer's motivation for wanting to invest.

I would inform the registrar that the email information in the WHOIS is incorrect.

I would also send a polite letter, in my experience that can get the ball rolling.

My gut says that if they have 70 domains registered, it's likely you'll have to pay an arm, a leg, and your firstborn for the domain. Good luck!

Can't wait for someone to sue for malpractice when confidential documents go viral, originating from a leak in India.

I believe the average case in India's civil courts is over 5 years and I would guess most companies are judgment proof and insurance won't cover outsourced work.

I laughed a little on the inside. Then I laughed out loud.

Online Payment Transaction Costs - every time a new player enters the field like Amazon Payments/Google Checkout entering into Paypal's domain they all converge on the same relative pricing scheme.

Without reading your article and the "spun" article it would be hard to tell whether or not your copyright has been infringed. Could you post the links?

Perhaps, open up a channel of communication with the "legitimate businesses" that run the site instead of sending them a DMCA notice.

For more on spinning, I found this article helpful: http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/06/16/spinning-spamming-...

I'm not sure you need the whole package, but it sure helps and potentially saves time/cost down the road.

@moe I think branding is always important.

Having a bit of trouble loading it in Chrome - is the site down?

My current manager visited my school for a brown bag lunch talk. I asked her questions during and after the lunch. I continued the discussion over email and eventually that turned into an internship. After the Bar, it turned into a job and the rest is history!

I'd be interested to see how processes work at a bootstrapped vs. funded start up. A comparison table would be awesome!