Dear Sirs,I am writing to express my disbelief and disappointment that you have issued a cease and desist notice to Sparkfun in respect of their tradename. I am a customer of Sparkfun and have bought their products in relatively large numbers in recent time. I have never at anytime confused their products with yours and...Out of interest I went to my search engine (Yahoo UK & Ireland) and searched for 'SPARC'. The first result was "SPARC - Strategic Promotion of Ageing Research Capacity". Hmmm,I hope I have not inadvertently created a problem for that erstwhile organisation by pointing out their potentially alleged breach of your trademark. Further down the first page of the search were a number of organisations going by the name SPARC. And of course the SPARC they are using is an acronym, just as is the name of your company (derived I believe from Scalable Processor Architecture). That is interesting. So the only similarity between your tradename and that of SparkFun is that the first syllable is sounds the same? Because of course the origins are different. SparkFun is derived from the 'real' word 'spark' and your word 'SPARC' is an acronym - not a 'real' word - of something that does not have anything like the same meaning. A quick search on Yell.com for Spark gave me the following: http://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAction.do;jsessionid=B9775C9A5B29D4E8835460CFEADA240E?startAt=30&companyName=spark&M=0&searchType=advance&ssm=0&startOoaAt=0&ppcStartAt=45&lastKeyword=Plumbers&pageNum=4I wonder if SparkFun should go after a few of those at some stage? Maybe you might like to consider it yourself.It is interesting that you claim that your SPARC sounds like spark - yes it does, amazing that you are effectively trying to restrict the use of the English language in favour of an acronym....I further notice that your legal representatives have stated categorically that SparkFun supply 'identical goods.' Now here is where you got my attention! I would be so grateful if you could supply me with a list of those goods as I am always on the look out for better priced goods. I have to admit that I did have some problems finding the following goods on your website and I would particulary be interested in your links to the following popular items (do you accept Visa Electron?):VTI SCP1000 pressure sensor breakout board (the Sprakfun is SPI but I would be REALLY interested if you did a TWI version - I think it uses the SCP1000-D11);short lengths of breakaway female headers because SparkFun only do them in strips of 40 and the problem is that when you break apart the section that you need you lose one pin and the end looks pretty grim - especially if you are trying to develop a commercial product (I hope yours are not too identical if you know wnat I mean);ArduPliot - they only supply it in red which to me is a bit aggressive;this one is a bit off the wall I know but do you sell hoodies? I really wanted to get a SparkFun one but as you supply identical products I may be shifting my brand loyalty and of course I am always ready to help promote and identify myself with a worthy product. My problem with SparkFun is that I am XXXL and their tees only go up to a XXL and while I really fancy the wrist belt I am a big guy and am not really sure that it will fit. Maybe your own calalogue will have a greater variety of sizes - or maybe they are identical too? Do your hoodies have SparkFun written on them if they are identical?Anyway, I am really look forward to receiving your list of identical goods so that I can compare, contrast and hopefully get a better deal.Oh yeah, before I forget - your legal advisors are trashing your reputation and that of your holding company - well it's alleged anyway.Regards (allegedly),Mike(PS, don't forget the links and the thing about the tee-shirts - thanks)
Dear Sparc Leaders,
I am writing to let you know that I am amused by your choice of lawyers, and their decision to legally harass Sparkfun. I suspect they either are not getting enough billable hours for you, or they need more oversight. Or some other excuse....?
Seriously, should you concentrate on your core business and market? Your legal department may need to be informed about what your core business is and is not.
Maybe I can help you explain it to them in simple terms (simple terms for the lawyers...)
I'm a basement hobbyist, I shop at Sparkfun for little bits to make toys. These little bits are small, and don't cost very much. The products are typically just bits, or parts. Parts of toys, usually.
Your market, ... hmmm, probably larger institutions and corporations? Looking for high end unix type computing systems and servers, and relatively expensive, rightly so. Your products are complete computing systems. Not typically purchased for basement hobbyist use.
Again, seriously, I think your claims are unfounded. I don't see how either Sparkfun or SPARC customers would be confused with each other.
Comments
I am writing to let you know that I am amused by your choice of lawyers, and their decision to legally harass Sparkfun. I suspect they either are not getting enough billable hours for you, or they need more oversight. Or some other excuse....?
Seriously, should you concentrate on your core business and market? Your legal department may need to be informed about what your core business is and is not.
Maybe I can help you explain it to them in simple terms (simple terms for the lawyers...)
I'm a basement hobbyist, I shop at Sparkfun for little bits to make toys. These little bits are small, and don't cost very much. The products are typically just bits, or parts. Parts of toys, usually.
Your market, ... hmmm, probably larger institutions and corporations? Looking for high end unix type computing systems and servers, and relatively expensive, rightly so. Your products are complete computing systems. Not typically purchased for basement hobbyist use.
Again, seriously, I think your claims are unfounded. I don't see how either Sparkfun or SPARC customers would be confused with each other.
Thanks your time,
Dale