Paul Markham

Sorry if I'm confused. I'm old.

Is this your domain?

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Far-L

I misunderstood your email to JR. My apologies. Check your mail as I just sent you something.

You can name a price if you want. We would of course pay a fair price for it. Of course, your idea of fair, my idea of fair, and what we would have to spend to get ICANN to resolve it would all have to be weighed together.

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DWB

Farrell,
To be clear, you're going after "homegrown" and not "homemade" correct?

iSpyCams

LOL @ you thinking you were the first to distribute homemade porn. Porn is older than you, older than your mother, older than the english language and before there were porn companies it was all made at home.

Also I noticed your trademark is for "Homegrown Video" not "Homegrown" or "Homegrown Amateurs" If you can claim "Homegrown" from having a trademark on "Homegrown Video" are you gonna try for "Video" next?

PornHero

Its a big fucking internet, I dont think "Homegrown Video" should own the term "homegrown"

They may own the term "Homegrown Video" but you can't blame them for trying to twist arms to get anything with "Homegrown" in it. They are probably just taking advice of their overpaid lawyers who only make money when they sue and have to send out letters.

It's dog eat dog out here on the internet!



EDIT: just read the rest of the thread so edit was in order.

Far-L

Yes, "Homegrown" in relation to anything related to adult entertainment only.

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Far-L

Well, shows how little you know. Homegrown Video was the first to purchase and distribute homemade content. We aren't talking about all that stuff that was shot in people's homes in porn valley. We are talking about mom and pop your average Joe and Josette could actually be your neighbor, not porn stars. You cannot find a company that was doing this before 1982. Homegrown has been around since betamax and vhs were still competing standards.

You seriously show lack of understanding about trademark. Read the mark and it makes it pretty clear. I guess ICANN agrees because everytime we have had to go to them about a domain we have prevailed. End of story. You can quick speculating and acting like you know what you are talking about.

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SleazyDream

Its a big fucking supermarket, I dont think "coke-a-cola" should own the term "coke"

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Far-L

We aren't trying to twist arms. We just have to protect our trademark and sorry if you disagree with that or think we are "wrong" because we strongly believe, and others here have agreed, as well as ICANN, etc. that we do have a mark that protects us against the brand confusion caused by someone calling themselves "homegrown amateurs" and not being associated with us.

You whining about it and busting our chops over it is not going to change that. Sorry.

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FlexxAeon

Lol there's a whole lot of stupid in this thread...

You guys need to read up on trademark law

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iSpyCams

I'm rooting for you buddy, because I rank for a few keywords as well and I can't wait to see you win so I can go extort all my competitors out of their domains using the precedent you set.

DarkJedi

to the OP: Psychology 101. They don't want to sue you. Don't roll over.

Far-L

Ok, what do you have a trademark on? We definitely will make sure not to tread on it. By the way, protecting a trademark is not the same as extortion, just so you know. Feel free to check it though with an attorney. I don't expect you to believe me.

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Evil Chris

I don't understand how a group of seasoned webmasters can't see how obvious this is.

Homegrown is trademarked where adult material is concerned. Cut and dry.

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DEA

wowza..that sukcs

Far-L

Great advice. You must be quite the legitimate business person to spew such genius and valuable pearl necklaces of wisdom.

I hope they take it. Willful infringement in a trademark dispute is so worth it, especially in a situation like this, our attorneys literally start salivating.

It is disgusting. You literally have to watch where you step.

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DarkJedi

Homegrown is not trademarked.

"Homegrown Videos" is.

iSpyCams

Not only that it's trademarked as a retail store for selling goods and subscriptions. Since the OP is not running a store or even a pay-site I don't see where the confusion could possibly come from.

In fact, I don't think anyone outside the industry has any idea about this "trademark" and I think it would be pretty difficult to prove that Joe Surfer was ever bamboozled into joining the OP's free site while trying to purchase goods from Homegrown Video.

Yeah I don't know alot about the legal angles, but I am pretty sure the precedents that exist, are there because too many people have rolled over under threat of costly litigation and the legal system has been abused to allow this kind of legal extortion and anti-competetive practices.

SleazyDream

the term 'HOMEGROWN' in relation to marketing adult videos would stand up in court

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Far-L

You should read the trademark. It would go a long way to helping you realize how inane your comment is; it might not relieve you of your duty being petulant snit sargeant of the booger patrol but hopefully it will make you stop making more of a fool of yourself before you demote yourself in the eyes of your bitchfest brigade.

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Gator

Trademark bully

PornHero

First of all, I am far from whining about it . I am making my money on the internet and I realize you are just trying to make yours. and your lawyers are in turn trying to make theirs.

But the line has to be drawn somehere... by your line of thinking then Bang Bros should go after anyone with the word Bang in their name and Reality Kings should go after anyone with the world Reality. where does it end?

And there is something to be said about webmaster relations in the longterm, due to the way you are handling this thread, "HOMEGROWN VIDEO" will NEVER get any traffic from me and a good number of people reading this thread.

BTW, just checked the HOMEGROWN VIDEO tour and I felt like I stepped back into 1998. 10 different font sizes, no color coordination, washed out low-res sample pics... upgrade your cheesy tour dude. you must get all your traffic from newb webmasters and old links from abandoned TGPs (i know whats going to come next, you are going to tell us that look is what sells )

Far-L

You don't know the legal angles because one reason. You don't run a business that owns a trademark and you have never even talked to a qualified legal representative to get schooled in even the basics of trademark law. Until you do that you should stop behaving so pompously like you actually do have a clue. You are literally proving to every person here that does run a real business how seriously deficient you are in this matter.

Why don't you run and play in a thread where your opinion might actually matter? I am sure there is a new model content thread you can chirp in somewhere that people will actually pay attention to your sagely wisdom in.

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SykkBoy

When I saw this thread title, I thought Homegrown accidentally let a domain expire....

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iSpyCams

No, but I run several businesses with generic words in the title and would like to try to claim these are trademarks and "vigorously defend" them against people who outrank me in google.

You seem to be making a lot of noise about how open and shut this case is and it just smells like bulshit, I would be very interested to see how the whole thing plays out if someone were to call your bluff on it.

I am assuming these 8 points are actually weighed in court:

1 Strength of the mark
2 Proximity of the goods
3 Similarity of the marks
4 Evidence of actual confusion
5 Marketing channels used
6 Type of goods and the degree of care likely to be exercised by the purchaser
7 Defendant's intent in selecting the mark
8 Likelihood of expansion of the product lines


I think an argumentative person could make a strong case against you on points 1, 4, 6 and 7.

1 because I don't think your trademark is recognizable by consumers
4 because I don't think any reasonable person would confuse the OP's website for yours
6 because consumers of homemade porn don't care about the brand (it's supposed to be home made, not branded)
7 because the OP was not aware of your "famous brand" when he set up his website and made no attempt to make it look anything like your site or even function in a similar manner.

raymor

It takes a big man to say that. I respect that. I take back what I said.


Homegrown Video has been around a LONG time and has a great brand. I think this is the first homemade content you guys distributed, right?:




(The Venus of Willendorf was homemade 25,000 years ago.)

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Captain Kawaii

Farrell just let em do their thing then go DISNEY on their stupid ass.
Playing with trademarks with an established company is suicide. Its beyond bizarre.

You are a gentlemen Farrell. Far more patience than me.

Far-L

Cut me a frigging break. Now you have to stoop to bashing our tours to try and make a point? Any tour we have that is still performing well is going to be constantly tested. We don't care if beret wearing art critics like you have an issue with it. All we care is that it converts to sales and beats our benchmarks. If we are doing better than 1/1000 on tubes an the tube owners love us since we convert their traffic so well I don't feel so bad that you think our designs suck. I will let the surfer whipping out his card for our content be our judge.

See, we run a business, we aren't in an art competition where you get to play judge and jury. People that actually care about conversions appreciate that. If you actually were more concerned with making money than playing ego games here then you might actually benefit as well.

Considering how apparent it is that you have zero respect for legal issues like trademarks, trust me, we aren't crying about losing your business. In fact, you are probably doing us a favor.

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vsex

you're spending far too much time defending yourself. Go outside, take a breath and remember where you are. You are on GFY.com

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NaughtyVisions

Actually, the trademarks are for "Coca-Cola" and "Coke." The product they are selling is cola. Which actually supports the argument in favor of Homegrown Video. The product is amateur porn, not "homegrown porn." Who the fuck calls amatuer porn homegrown? No one, except for Homegrown Video. Normal people would call amateur porn either "amateur porn" or "homemade porn." "Homegrown" is a descriptive branding of amatuer porn, created by and used by Homegrown Video. I can almost guarantee no one called amateur porn "homegrown" before Homegrown Video. You guys bashing HV seem to think the product is homegrown porn; it's not. It's amateur porn, or homemade porn. Just like Coca-Cola/Coke's product is cola.

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Kenny B!

Hah you people are funny, here's a little tip for you all...

When it comes to domain name trademark infringement there is no big lawsuit or court appearances. The trademark holder must open dispute with ICAAN, then they contact the infringing party and it goes from there. Once both sides plead their cases there is a panel at ICAAN that makes a decision.

I've been involved in 2 disputes, one with Adam & Eve and the other Kick Ass Pictures, I won both. I won't talk about the HG case because it isn't my business and they can resolve it themselves.

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Far-L

Allow me to rebuttal...

1. Newsweek Magazine declared Homegrown Video "the longest running series in the history of porn". US NEWS And World Report "Made by the people for the people Homegrown represents the democracy of porn"... I could go on but I assure you those would go along way to proving the first standard. Worked all the other times we have been down this road...

4. About half the people in this thread said it would be confusing and we could use this thread to show that.

6. Our customers tell us time and time again why our brand matters. We have tons of real letters from people making that clear that our brand is the only one they trust. We have done this before so trust me that this one is not hard to prove either.

7. Looks like amateur content to me. Looks like it says Homegrown. Looks like it links to amateur content. It is not my problem if they didn't know or take the time to do any due diligence. It is my problem to let them know they are infringing, which I did.

Satisfied or are you still trying to play high powered IP attorney?

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NaughtyVisions

I covered my thoughts on this already, in my post where I discussed "naughty" and "nasty." "Bang" and "reality" are general descriptive words, just like "naughty" and "nasty." "Homegrown" is not, regardless of what people here would have you believe, because if people are looking for porn created by people in their homes, they would search for "homeMADE porn" or "amateur porn." If someone searches for "homegrown porn," it's most likely because the Homegrown Video name is already implanted in their brain.

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Evil Chris

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PornHero

Actually I have alot of respect for legal issues like trademarks. I've readily worked with my sponsors to resolve issues in the past. Please dont jump to conclusions just because I dont agree with you in this case.

And sorry but my point about your tour still stands... it's hurting. I dont know who did your tour analysis but they forget to carry a 1 somewhere when calculating sales. You need to spend more time to improve that tour and less time annoying potential sales partners on GFY.

Your tour reminds me of the dead lightspeed sites http://main.lightspeed18.com/res/

even Kara's tour, which has been around forever, has been upgraded:
http://www.karasxxx.com/std_trial_000/index.shtml

see the mobile phone image? the hi-def sample pics? how the surfer is led to the join form right on the homepage?? just cuz you have amateur porn doesnt mean your tour should be created by an amateur designer

grab a clue and a new designer... Its 2012 man!

ok I am out, I dont think I've posted 3 times in 1 day on GFY in years! carry on...

Far-L

Yeah, you are probably right but I haven't had this much fun since the good ol' days of when piss was piss and real players were the backbone of GFY.

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Captain Kawaii

"petulant snit sergeant of the booger patrol "

Yeah, I have to write that one down. Thats some funny shit.

ArsewithClass

Absolutely...

I'm with the fact that this is porn. It is amateur porn that is 'Home made' porn, not 'homegrown' porn... this is a trademark

With our name, there would be other complications, were Gspot productions, for Gspot Cash. I wouldn't have thought we could sue if someone was to use Gspot filming the gspot, but using it as Gspot Porn with normal porn, there must be some ways to sue over trademarks.

I clearly see it as 'HomeGrown', the trademark for Homegrown videos

SleazyDream

what fact do you base that homegrown needs a new design in?

with a long term site like homegrown, people might be coming back after MANY years, and seeing what they remembered for design might actually help sales.

my experience was always pretty sites didn't sell

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Far-L

Ok. Thanks. We were holding our breath until we got your critical assesment. I guess we will start running our business based on your opinion since the numbers don't matter as much as your all seeing all knowing omnipresent omniscience.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I really don't know how we have survived this long without the benefit of your superhero super powered genius to guide us to salvation.

Can you please give us a "Hi-yo silver and away" or some suitable catchphrase, that one might be copyrighted so don't use it, but give us something so we can wave appropriately while you ride off into the sunset to rescue some other helpless site, Lone Critic, the masked avenger of bad graphics!

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SleazyDream

Far-L has no credibility unless he starts posting links to free homegrown videos to prove his point......


ok, I'm horny and I like the content..........

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iSpyCams

OK well, after you get the 22 clicks a day you are loosing to Icymelon you better get off the board and go after the other 48,000 sites that mention "homegrown amateurs".

Far-L

Ok boss. I will get right on that.

Hold on...

If you don't mind I am going to wait until you actually consult with an attorney and figure out how tragically misinformed your comments have been.

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Paul Markham

Prior to the VHS camera for domestic use. We had film. Shooting and developing porn on 8mm cine film was a nightmare. Duping it opened all sorts of doors to new problems. No one outside the "porn industry" could of done this commercially.

A Betacam camera wasn't the type of thing most people had in their homes.

I know this because in 1982 I was in the porn industry working and can back up what Far-L is saying.

Porn Stories

In 1982 I was shooting photos only to sell mail order and still making the kind of money most here make. Good times when you needed a comb to muff dive and a toothpick afterwards.

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iSpyCams

Oh, well if Paul Markham is siding with you I guess it's all over. Later guys, this has been fun.

NaughtyVisions

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signupdamnit

Thank you. It baffles me how people don't see this. But I notice there is a bit of BROmance going on in this topic so I suspect that some really do see it but are just backing their Bro.

http://thesaurus.com/browse/homegrown

The domain "homegrownamateurs.com" is redundant.
If someone wanted to be an asshole they could use the word "homegrown" everywhere tthey would normally use the word "amateur" such as on their blogs and categories and in my opinion there isn't much he could do about it other than posture and bring a frivolous lawsuit. It would be an asshole move to do that since few use that word in place of "amateur" in the industry and you would just be fucking with Far-L but it's no different really than using another synonym in my opinion.

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signupdamnit

Far-L, please tell us why you chose the name "Homegrown Video" in the first place? What was your understanding of the word when choosing the name?

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Relentless

Wha...what...wait a minute... You mean there is no 'jury trial' as some of the ignorant people in this thread have suggested and no Matlock style dramatic music playing in the background as your white-haired trial attorney stands up to deliver his scopes-monkey-trial-esque closing arguments?! Kenny, you just ruined the fantasy for so many self-abused webmasters.

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PornHero

I am not saying it has to be "pretty"...I am talking more about optimizing for sales.

For example, they havent optimized their homepage images for the search engines nor do they mention mobile access anywhere on their site.

- They have pics named "main_thumbs.jpg" on their homepage as well as a script calling images "http://www.homegrownvideo.com/view_image.php?gal=8455&file=sample.jpg&width=150& height=113" instead of having the script hardcode an optimized image name into the tour.

- They keyword-stuffed the metatags in the index file ( I did that shit in 2002). In fact, all their pages have the same description and keyword metatags, simply no excuse for that.

- They still have "copyright 2011" in the footer of all their pages and we are 38 days into 2012. If Im thinking of enter my credit card details I would prefer to see 2012, wouldn't you?

- They claim to be all about homegrown content but they have a picture of Hailey Young, a well-known pornstar, right on their videos page! NICE! http://www.homegrownvideo.com/index.php?section=586

um, while Im at it... http://www.homegrownvideo.com/index.php?section=586 is a SHITTY url for your main video section that many people will be bookmarking - should be http://homegrownvideo.com/videos/ or http://www.homegrownvideo.com/movies/

- Just checked, they dont even have a mobile-optimized version for smartphones () but he wants to spout off about how well this tour sells???

etc etc etc.... yeah, I can see they put alot of thought into this tour it really is amateur hour in this thread

Hi Ho SILvER.. AwAAAAy!!!