Is my Facebook page name an example of Nominative Use?

[YieldSelf]

I am the admin of a Facebook page called Crossfit Babes, that features pictures of women participating in crossfit.

I received a message today from a man affiliated with Crossfit today claiming I am not authorized to use the name Crossfit and he has requested I remove the name from my page.

Since the pictures featured on my page are of women doing Crossfit, the name is necessary in describing what my page is about, and no where do I suggest that my page is endorsed or sponsored by Crossfit. I also only use the word Crossfit and no part of the font or symbol. These are supposedly the 3 tests of nominative use according to the wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_use

Anyways, I know wikipedia isn't right about everything, so I'm asking around to see if my page can remain being called Crossfit Babes or will I be forced to change it?

 

[Bgood2me]

I am the admin of a Facebook page called Crossfit Babes, that features pictures of women participating in crossfit.

I received a message today from a man affiliated with Crossfit today claiming I am not authorized to use the name Crossfit and he has requested I remove the name from my page.

Since the pictures featured on my page are of women doing Crossfit, the name is necessary in describing what my page is about, and no where do I suggest that my page is endorsed or sponsored by Crossfit. I also only use the word Crossfit and no part of the font or symbol. These are supposedly the 3 tests of nominative use according to the wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_use

Anyways, I know wikipedia isn't right about everything, so I'm asking around to see if my page can remain being called Crossfit Babes or will I be forced to change it?

This man affiliated with Crossfit, was he by chance named Mark Zuckerberg?

I would disregard this person. Does he lay claim to "Crossfit Babes" or "Crossfit"? Your account is "Crossfit Babes" on Facebook. This man affiliated, if he has a problem send him to Mr. Zuckerberg to address it.

 

[Proserpina]

This man affiliated with Crossfit, was he by chance named Mark Zuckerberg?

I would disregard this person. Does he lay claim to "Crossfit Babes" or "Crossfit"? Your account is "Crossfit Babes" on Facebook. This man affiliated, if he has a problem send him to Mr. Zuckerberg to address it.

Seriously?!

 

[Bgood2me]

Seriously?!

EDITED:

US LAW ONLY!!

Is there something that you would like to add? I am reading the terms and conditions on Facebook. You know? The ones that everyone agrees to and doesn't READ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Facebook Pages Terms

The following terms, as well as our Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, apply to all Pages on Facebook. Additionally, all content on Pages must comply with our Community Standards.

I. General

A. Only authorized representatives may administer a Page for a brand, entity (place or organization), or public figure.

B. Any user may create a Page to express support for or interest in a brand, entity (place or organization), or public figure, provided that it is not likely to be confused with an official Page or violate someone's rights.

C. Content posted to a Page is public and viewable by everyone who can see the Page.

D. You are required to restrict access to Pages (through our gating functionality) as necessary to comply with applicable laws and Facebook policies, including our Advertising Guidelines and Community Standards.

E. You may not establish terms for your Page that conflict with our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Data Use Policy or these terms.

II. Page Management

A. Page Names and Facebook Web Addresses

Page names and Facebook Web Addresses must accurately reflect Page content. We may remove administrative rights or require you to change the Page name and Facebook Web Address for any Page that fails to meet this requirement.

Page names must:

i. not consist solely of generic terms (e.g., “beer” or “pizza”

ii. use proper, grammatically correct capitalization and may not include all capitals, except for acronyms;

iii. not include character symbols, such as excessive punctuation and trademark designations; and

iv. not include superfluous descriptions or unnecessary qualifiers.

 

[quincy]

This man affiliated with Crossfit, was he by chance named Mark Zuckerberg?

I would disregard this person. Does he lay claim to "Crossfit Babes" or "Crossfit"? Your account is "Crossfit Babes" on Facebook. This man affiliated, if he has a problem send him to Mr. Zuckerberg to address it.

What are you talking about, Bgood2me?



YieldSelf, this site is for US law only. Please provide the name of your state. Thanks.

 

[quincy]

Yep.

Is there something that you would like to add? I am reading the terms and conditions on Facebook. You know? The ones that everyone agrees to and doesn't READ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Facebook Pages Terms

The following terms, as well as our Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, apply to all Pages on Facebook. Additionally, all content on Pages must comply with our Community Standards.

I. General

A. Only authorized representatives may administer a Page for a brand, entity (place or organization), or public figure.

B. Any user may create a Page to express support for or interest in a brand, entity (place or organization), or public figure, provided that it is not likely to be confused with an official Page or violate someone's rights.

C. Content posted to a Page is public and viewable by everyone who can see the Page.

D. You are required to restrict access to Pages (through our gating functionality) as necessary to comply with applicable laws and Facebook policies, including our Advertising Guidelines and Community Standards.

E. You may not establish terms for your Page that conflict with our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Data Use Policy or these terms.

II. Page Management

A. Page Names and Facebook Web Addresses

Page names and Facebook Web Addresses must accurately reflect Page content. We may remove administrative rights or require you to change the Page name and Facebook Web Address for any Page that fails to meet this requirement.

Page names must:

i. not consist solely of generic terms (e.g., “beer” or “pizza”

ii. use proper, grammatically correct capitalization and may not include all capitals, except for acronyms;

iii. not include character symbols, such as excessive punctuation and trademark designations; and

iv. not include superfluous descriptions or unnecessary qualifiers.

What are you talking about, Bgood2me?

And, again, US law only, YieldSelf.

 

[Proserpina]

What are you talking about?

I have no idea, quincy.

Maybe this one requires a couple of Funsuckers?

 

[Bgood2me]

US LAW ONLY!!

Why is this even a question? When I searched "Crossfit Babes" one thousand other "Crossfit" sites came up!

Waisting my time!!

 

[quincy]

EDITED:

US LAW ONLY!!





Quote from site, "Mario, I am no lawyer. As a matter a fact in my profile picture I am defiling a Greek statue. However , you are not making profit from the Crossfit name so I'm sure you are able to have an open forum about a subject you are interested in. As a matter a fact there is a whole amendment in the US constitution about this issue. I'm sure that if this page was about Ford trucks you wouldn't be getting the business from Ford to shut the site down. My 2 cents."

Is there something that you would like to add? I am reading the terms and conditions on Facebook. You know? The ones that everyone agrees to and doesn't READ?

Your edited post, Bgood2me, gives your 2 cents?

There are legal ways to use someone's trademark. Whether YieldSelf infringed or has anything to worry about legally can depend on how exactly he used the Crossfit name on his Facebook page. If he has been notified by Crossfit to remove the trademark, though, there is some reason for concern.

It can also depend on which country he lives in, so he really should answer that question.

And yes, Pro. Tonight seems like a double-Funsucker night.

 

[YieldSelf]

Sorry if I committed some kind of faux pas regarding U.S. law, I'm based in Illinois.

The man who contacted me is Russ Greene and according to his LinkedIn account, he is a media team member for Crossfit: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/russ-greene/13/35/b17

Here's my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/crossfitbabes

 

[Bgood2me]

Your edited post, Bgood2me, gives your 2 cents?

There are legal ways to use someone's trademark. Whether YieldSelf infringed or has anything to worry about legally can depend on how exactly he used the Crossfit name on his Facebook page. If he has been notified by Crossfit to remove the trademark, though, there is some reason for concern.

It can also depend on which country he lives in, so he really should answer that question.

And yes, Pro. Tonight seems like a double-Funsucker night.

Okay, I sincerely apologize. I do have some knowledge about law but not in this area. I was just trying to be helpful. I have made great strides in my case today and I felt invincible for a moment and boy, that moment was quick.

I would like to edit and erase all of my comments on this post. I am not qualified to give advise on this subject.

 

[Antigone*]

Okay, I sincerely apologize. I do have some knowledge about law but not in this area. I was just trying to be helpful. I have made great strides in my case today and I felt invincible for a moment and boy, that moment was quick.

I would like to edit and erase all of my comments on this post. I am not qualified to give advise on this subject.

You said it, not us. And nope, when we quote, we do it for a reason. Don't count on the other members deleting your quoted posts.

 

[YieldSelf]

I thought it may be useful to include my exchange with Mr. Greene so far:

Russ Greene
This is Russ Greene from CrossFit HQ. While I appreciate your enthusiasm for CrossFit, you are not authorized to use the CrossFit trademark the way you do on your "CrossFit Babes" page.

Could you please change the name of your group from "CrossFit Babes" to something that does not contain the name "CrossFit?"

Thank you and please let me know if you have any questions.

Crossfit Babes
Isn't my page protected by nominative use?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_use

Russ Greene
I am not a lawyer, but your use seems to violate at least this standard: "The user does nothing to suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder."

By labeling something "CrossFit Girls" and not "Girls who do CrossFit", it implies an association with CrossFit Inc.

*edit: It seems odd to me that in his first message he would request I remove the word 'crossfit' entirely and in his second, he suggest that it is not the presence of the word 'crossfit' that is the problem, but where it is grammatically in the sentence.

 

[quincy]

It can be the placement of another's trademark that causes an otherwise okay use of it to infringe on trademark rights.

Your "CrossFit Babes" can imply an ownership in the mark and a sponsorship by CrossFit whereas "Girls who do CrossFit" is using the trademarked name in a descriptive sense, which would be an allowable use of the mark. I cannot very well describe the type of car I am driving or the type of soda pop I am drinking, for example, if I cannot use their trademarked names.

So I agree with Russ Greene that the way you are using the trademark could be looked at as an infringement of their mark.

I am surprised Greene did not mention your use of the word "babes," too, although perhaps this is not something he looks at as a dilution or disparagement of the mark (although the babes who are pictured doing CrossFit might ). Perhaps his substitution of the word "girls" for "babes" in his exchanges with you was a subtle hint? And perhaps "women" would be a better word to use than either girls or babes?

Based on your posts and without having looked personally at your Facebook page, I think you could be forced to change your title from CrossFit Babes to Girls who do CrossFit.

If CrossFit can show infringement, at the very least a court can issue an injunction, preventing you from using your site. CrossFit could also be entitled to three times the actual money damages they have suffered as a result of your use or be entitled to any profits you may have made. In addition, if it can be shown your infringement was a deliberate attempt by you to profit off the trademark, attorney fees and costs can be awarded CrossFit. Unless your Facebook page is commercial in nature, however, the injunction seems a more likely outcome should you not take Greene's advice and change the wording on your page a bit.

I read through what was posted on Wikipedia and the information provided there does give an adequate overview of nominative fair use, but I do not believe from what you have posted here that your use can be seen as nominative. Plus, nominative use is a defense to an infringement action, so you may not want to test this defense by being sued and heading to court over the matter.

I did not take a look at your Facebook page. You may want to have an attorney in your area personally review it and the letters you have received from CrossFit before complying with any of CrossFit's demands, to see if CrossFit is correct in their thinking that your use is infringing on their mark. I can only see (from this distance) that they might have a legitimate claim.

As a side note, I hope you have permission to use the photos of the women doing CrossFit on your Facebook page, or you could potentially be hearing from one or more of them, as well.

Good luck.


(a note to Bgood2me: Don't worry about your posts. We have all posted things on this forum that we wish we hadn't. . . and, anyway, the Zuckerberg comment was definitely an interesting one. )

 

[YieldSelf]

Thank you for the advice Quincy. I assumed as much and the page was never anything more than a social media experiment, so having to change the name now is not a problem. I was investigating the marketing potential of identifying emergent online subcultures and I'm happy this incident has led me here, so I can make smarter and safer decisions in the future when my goals are commercial and the subcultures are closely associated with specific brands.

This page though is not commercial in nature and has driven business to a number of crossfit affiliated gyms, as well as traffic to their main website. If these are the sort of "damages" they wish to no longer incur, so be it. As for the pictures, I'm more than happy to remove those of any woman who were to request it of me. Hasn't happened yet; never underestimate the vanity of women.

Thanks again!

*edit: Just looked into changing the page name and apparently if your page has over 200 likes (mine has over 10,000) facebook does not allow you to change the name. Looks like Crossfit Babes will be going the way of the Dodo.