My Patience is Wearing Thin

I’m getting sort of sick and tired of people saying lies. I mean, I get that people bend the truth now and again for ‘umph’ – if you will – but the outright lies are bugging me. First, let me say… This will be a long post. Second, let me say… I think I must have a different moral compass than most. Most on the internet anyway. I don’t understand seeing someone succeeding at something and then going and recreating the exact thing they were successful at – but changing one word or something. I also don’t understand people, who upon finding out they’re in violation of some such law, say “Yeah, I saw that law, but I don’t think I have to follow it, so I’m not gonna until someone makes me.”

I’m running into this a lot, as of late. Actually, about the time I got my trademark. One page, that has been asked repeatedly, to honor the trademark and change their name, not only refuses – but insists on telling people that I am trying to shut them down when I have done no such thing. These statuses, and similar keep showing up…

I’m getting a little sick of these, actually. Because of that, and to prove that I am not trying to shut anyone down – specifically them – below you will find the correspondence between the page and myself or the page and my husband. We sent a notice of our trademark along with a request that the name be changed.

Here is the reply and conversation that followed: (Our replies are in Italics) And tell me – where – WHERE – have I tried to shut them down? Where have I threatened them? Where did I ask anything unreasonable? PLEASE tell me…

*SVC*FP
I have already been contacted about this issue and have given my answer.
Even if i wanted to change the name, i can’t.
And i believe it is wrong for you to ask us to remove our page after we have come so far
I’m not aware that anyone gets our pages confused,
Infact i thought we coexisted nicely without any troubles.
Alos, you were not registed up until recently; After a certain amount of likes a page is unable to change it’s name. We exceeded that amount a long while back, long before your name was trade marked.
Please message back with any further concerns
Thanks -SVCFP Admin Team

Tom Thebomb
The “Clean Funny Pics” name is registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office of the Federal Government. (Copy Attached) The registration was granted recently, but the name was used in commerce for almost two years. You cannot use the name without our permission. If you continue to do so, you’re in violation and infringing on our rights.
It is not our concern that you cannot change the name. The name must be changed, or the page must be taken down. I am willing to offer you some time to set up a new page and notify your followers so they will know to go to your new page.

*SVC*FP
You are asking us to delete the page after all the time we’ve spent on it? It may be hard for a page like *Clean* Funny Pics to understand, you have like, what? 150k likes? This page has been going for 2-3 years now and we have put lots of time and effort to see our fans grow. May we request permission to use the name? At the least i would atleast like to talk to Shelley about this issue.

Tom Thebomb
The page has been going for 1 year and 4 months. It was created and established 7 months after *Clean* Funny Pics. If you wait to delete this page until after a new one is established and has followers, then it’s not deleting the page, it’s changing its name. You may also request a name change via Facebook. Doing so would change nothing for you, your followers or your page.
There are clean pages that we at *Clean* Funny Pics will share pictures from their page. Those pages being pages that don’t infringe on our rights. Having said that, I am sure we would have no problem sharing a picture from your page on *Clean* Funny Pics – once the name has been changed.
We are not trying to be unreasonable. We’re trying to work with you. Unreasonable would be contacting Facebook or sending a letter from our attorney. It may seem trivial to others, but once another page bought up our domains, we had to protect our brand.

*SVC*FP
I visited the USPRO official website, and searched your registration number. It has not search results. Would you mind explaining this?
USPTO*

Tom Thebomb
Not sure what site you went to, but it’s there. http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85757388&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch
And here is a copy of the certificate:
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn85757388&docId=ORC20130723004406#docIndex=0&page=1

*SVC*FP
Thank you for your time. How much time are we given to move pages?

Tom Thebomb
Take as long as you’d like. I’d think whenever enough people have liked the new page and unliked the old page then that’d be a good time. I would suggest submitting a name change request to Facebook. It would be your best option as you’re number of fans wouldn’t be affected. You can do it under “edit page”

*SVC*FP
I believe a previous admin as already tried to change the page name. after 200 likes the page name can only be changed once, and we already have.
Your request of a name change can not be done

Tom Thebomb
You mean “won’t” be done. Thank you for letting me know.
I am sure people will attack and accuse me of being mean, petty, stupid, etc So I’m just putting it on the record… That you’re turning down being shared and promoted on the *Clean* Funny Pics page on Facebook. (As well as the other pages *Clean* Funny Pics owns)
Another page was shared approximately 7 hours ago on the  *Clean* Funny Pics page and has already gotten over 600 new likes. Sharing a page I’ve never shared before would likely get that many in half the time.
To each his own.
Have a great day,
Tom

*SVC*FP
I hope we continue our friendship and this ordeal has not tainted our views of each other

Tom Thebomb
This is Shelley. My husband logged in and allowed me to reply through his account instead of starting a new conversation with you.
I don’t want anyone to have any hard feelings at all. I certainly don’t. That was never my intent. I fear though that you may not realize what the next step in this process will be. Please understand, this is not a threat in any way shape or form, just merely informing you as to the way things stand from a legal perspective.
First, a small backstory….
I filed and trademarked my *Clean* Funny Pics name not because I was worried about smaller pages or because I don’t want any other clean pages on Facebook. That couldn’t be further from the truth – as I have said, there are many clean pages who showed up after me (after you even) and I am happy to work with and share them.
The reason the trademark was gotten was so I could get my domains back. See, I bought my .com and once I realized it was going to work out I tried to buy my other domains. I couldn’t. Another clean picture page had already done so. I’m sure you know who I mean so I won’t bore you with the details. The page was originally called “Clean and Funny Pics” and this person bought up all the http://www.cleanandfunnypics.com/.net/.org/.mobi  before he realized I changed my name. I took the ‘and’ out at the last minute and started using cleanfunnypics.com I got .com only (and not the others .net .org, etc) because of a last minute change in my page name. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to buy any of them. (For example, ********************** website (not page on FB – the website) is also owned by this same guy. He told me on the phone that he bought their domains before they could and so they couldn’t. Never occurred to me that he tried to do the same to me but wasn’t able to because of a last minute change. But I digress.
So, after speaking to an attorney about my domains, and with their help, I filed a trademark application. The whole trademark process is very expensive and LONG. It was almost a year. Many people think I was being petty or taking things to seriously, blah blah blah and maybe I am – but in order to get my domain names back, it was necessary. So why does it matter if I get my domain names back, right? I agree, except that because of him purchasing my domains (.mobi included, which is the mobile version) my website visits drastically dropped and therefor – so did my income from the site. I was averaging between 20,000 and 25,000 hits a day. Then, out of the blue – for no reason that I could find, my visits dropped down to 5,000. See, people go to what they think is my website and end up on his. No, I’m not that greedy. If I never made any money from ads on my site, that would be fine – but I don’t think it’s right that anyone ELSE makes money on it instead of me… right?
The other reason that’s not good is because I have guaranteed clean humor. His definition and my definition of clean may vary and in that case, he could ruin my good name. Keeping in mind that our name is all we have, this website and page has been the only thing in my life that has been successful – so yeah, I’m a bit protective.
Anyway, I say all that because I need you to understand something. Again… I am NOT threatening you in anyway. I just want you to have a very clear picture of the position I am in… So… Here it is laid out – black and white…
I hope you understand, I want you to understand (and I am telling you because I do not want anyone to think I’m picking on them or being mean – I’m not – I’m being upfront.) that when Facebook is sent a copy of my trademarked certificate, they will then use that certificate to take down any pages that violate my mark. Please understand… I’m NOT asking FB to take YOU off of Facebook. I’m letting you know that I will be notifying them of my mark (to confirm my page and such) and pages that they find are violating my mark MAY be removed. You MAY NOT be removed, I don’t know. They may find it’s not that similar – I just know my attorney said it was. Who knows what FB will think (they’re kind of odd in what they find is a violation). Please, if you hear nothing else, please hear this… I AM NOT REPORTING YOUR PAGE TO FACEBOOK. I AM NOT ASKING FACEBOOK TO TAKE DOWN YOUR PAGE. I am only letting you know that I am notifying FB of my registered trademark. What FB does with that – I do not know.
So, ONE last time – and as a favor to ensure you won’t have your page removed – I am offering to start and establish a new page for you. A new page that DEFINITELY won’t be removed from FB. A page that will be all yours to run however you see fit. A page that I will happily call (as can you) a friend of *Clean* Funny Pics. (See The Daily Facepalm’s Cover Photo) A page I will like and follow myself as well as like and follow from *Clean* Funny Pics and a page who – if you post a picture I like – I will share on *Clean* Funny Pics as often as the notion strikes me. (As long as you remain true to the definition of “clean”) I will also feature you (and the other friends of *Clean* Funny Pics) on my website…
This is an offer that I am not making to any other pages (at this time), but if you turn it down, I will move down the list to someone else in an effort to help them out. If this is something you would like to do, let me know. Once you do, I will share with you my thoughts on how, as well as take any suggestions from you on how to make it happen.
I will say this… If you agree to work with me on this, I will wait until your new page has as many likes as you have right this minute (2,448) before I notify Facebook of my registered mark ensuring that it won’t be removed.
And I am not trying to toot my own horn, but plain old clean picture pages that I share, report 600 -1000 new likes in a 24 hour period. And all of the pages that are “Friends of *Clean* Funny Pics” are either close to or have moved past the 10,000 mark because of shares on *Clean* Funny Pics. I know you do this for fun, and numbers don’t matter, but a conglomerate of clean pages, banding together… not only in the name of clean, but also ethical and christianly… That’s a good thing!
You can reply here and my husband will let me know when you have, or you can contact me through the Shelley page or even at shelley@cleanfunnypics.com …
Looking forward to hearing from you and hope we are able to work together.
Blessings,
Shelley

*SVC*FP
Shelley,
It was never my intentions to come across rude or impolite, and i apologize if it seemed so.
This kind of feels like a big misunderstanding, and i believe i misjudged your intentions.
As much as  i would like to change my page name to avoid trouble, i am unable to. If it is okay with you i will keep the page up as i see it unnecessary to take the page down to start over.
But if you don’t mind, i may take up your offer on making a second page, supported on *clean* funny pics as a back-up incase facebook does delete this one.
Once again i apologize for everything, and hope you have a good day

Tom Thebomb
I’ll have to get back to you on that as having this page, with the name as it is, does not support or help what I am ultimately trying to do – that being get my domains back. It’s late here and everyone, but me, is in bed. I’ll talk with Tom tomorrow and let you know. However, if you’ve not heard from me in a couple days – email and remind me… School starts this week and so does the hectic. lol I could very easily forget…

*SVC*FP
I only meant as a last resort. For now we can just remain neutral about the entire thing. As i said before,this page can’t, and won’t, go anywhere unless forced too by Facebook. I hate if i sound rude, but i too, need to stand my ground. I would happily comply if the situation was different because we are unable to change the name i am not willing to give up the page if not forced to. I hope you understand were i might be coming from and hope you can understand why i might make this decision. Please message back ASAP! Have a nice day  -TunaFish><(((“>

Tom Thebomb
I understand your position. Well, not really… I don’t understand why you would want to keep this page over something better. Stand your ground? On what? Why? This makes no sense to me, but I don’t understand the creation of pages with the same name as already existing pages either. What I *REALLY* don’t understand is the complete dismissal of the law by continuing to violate a government registered mark… But I digress.
So, to re-cap: I offered to give you a new page with as many followers, or more than you have now, supported by *Clean* Funny Pics. Meaning, the new page would be an official “Friend of *Clean* Funny Pics” and have *Clean* Funny Pics page(s) promote it. In return for those things, you would delete this page.
Your counter offer is to remain neutral, ignore the infringement of my mark, keep this page and have me give you a page that will be supported by *Clean* Funny Pics.
Now THAT’S funny.
The offer I made is what it is. You can either take it and we can move forward, or leave it and let things fall as they may. The choice is yours.
vr
Shelley

*SVC*FP
Okay let me try and paint the way i feel the best i can; Say an even bigger page, with multi-million likes, was to trademark their name, before you. The options they give you are to change your name, which you are unable to do, or give up your page and start over with the support of their page. You might be happy to give up your page and start over, or you might realize all the time, work and drama that happened on your page was waisted, and you have to start over, after making it so far. Now you might not feel that way, but thats the best way i can describe how i feel. Call me stupid but from what i understood from one of your previous messages, you gave me the option to keep my page. Please correct me if im wrong but thats what i thought you meant.

Tom Thebomb
Well, let me put it this way. It wouldn’t matter if a page with one like or one billion likes contacted me and let me know that my page was infringing on their trademark, I would humbly apologize and either change my name or immediately shut it down. I *might* ask them for a little time to let my fans know I was shutting the page down, but that’s it. That would be that.
I wouldn’t have ever started a page in the same name as a larger page to start with. Even with a slight change in the name. But, if I had… I’d still respond in the same manner as I said above. Why? Because they existed first. I knew they existed first and I started my own page because of them. They have every right to trademark their name because they thought of it, used it and marketed it FIRST.
It matters not. I think we’re done here. I shall move on to the next page on the list and offer to help them. Have a good day.
“Say an even bigger page, with multi-million likes, was to trademark their name, before you.”
Just kinda look at what you wrote there… another page trademarked THEIR name before you. That right there shows your intent to infringe and or ride the backs of those who trademarked their name.

*SVC*FP
Clearly it is impossible to logically communicate with you. I will happily converse with you when you are willing to see both sides of the situation. Good day.

Tom Thebomb
As I said. We’re done here. It is not I that is unable to see both sides of this situation. You stated your side, asking how I would feel if I had to start over after the time, work and drama that occurred on your page. See, I very clearly saw both sides and considered how I would feel. That is why I made the offer to help you with a new page so you wouldn’t lose everything. I didn’t have to offer anything or even tell you about my trademark, but I did.
By saying I can’t see both sides of the situation you imply that you can, and maybe you can see both sides, but you’re not acknowledging both sides. You’re not acknowledging anyone or anything but yourself. You’re not acknowledging the time, work, effort, money and so much of myself that I put into my page. Your counter offer to my offer proves you don’t see or care about things from my side. Your counter offer showed you were willing to take even more advantage of me, advantage of my willingness to help and mooch off my name. All of this shows your true nature.
It truly saddens me that people care more about themselves these days than they do any other human being or THE LAW. I truly don’t – and don’t think I ever will – understand why one thinks it’s okay to completely disregard the law.
These messages and your admittance of knowingly using my mark have been saved and sent to my attorney. In your last correspondence you said “…was to trademark THIER name before you [could].” Thus proving that you know it is my name and mark and you continue to use it anyway.
I have tried to speak with you nicely, I have tried to help you, I have offered to promote you I have offered a lot. I didn’t have to do any of that. You have offered nothing – except to take even more advantage of my generosity. I’m sorry you have been unwilling to see things from any perspective other than your own.
I shall proceed with reports of infringements on my mark as well as having a cease and desist letter drafted and sent to **** ****. I wish you well in all things and have no hard feelings – only confusion – and leave you with a story.
Say you take some money you had put away and buy a Hummer. You buy it to use it to get to and from work so you can provide for your family. One day, while you’re at work – it’s stolen. You find out who it is that stole it and you go to them and ask for it back. They say no. So, you speak to the police and the police say that you must prove it is yours. You present them with papers and things, but those papers and things aren’t official documents. So, you have to go to the county with your paperwork and everything to verify it is yours, for how long it was yours and so on. Thus beginning the process of getting a title on your Hummer. A process that is very long and very costly.
During the time that the process is going on the people who have your vehicle detail it every month, they replace the tires, they may even give it a paint job. Then, after almost a year, the county contacts you and says “Congrats, here’s your title and registration number to prove it is yours.”
Yay! Finally! So, you take your title and registration to the person’s house who has your vehicle. You show them the documents and ask them to give the Hummer back. They look at it and say “Well, I’ve put a lot of time into that thing. I kept it clean and detailed it every month. I also had the tires replaced. I’m going to have to decline your request and keep your Hummer because I don’t think it is right for you to ask for it back after all the time and work I’ve put into it.” Which completely disregards the time and work you put into earning the money to pay for it in the first place.
This response doesn’t make any sense because it is an outright dismissal of the law. But, you want to be fair, so you go back to the person who has the Hummer and say “Look, I need my vehicle. It’s my livelihood. I use it to get back and forth to work. It supports my family. But, I’m willing to work with you here… If you’ll give me my Hummer, I will give you this slightly smaller FORD F-150 that I have. That way, when I turn all this in to the police, you’ll have something else to drive when the police come to get the Humvee. It will be completely yours and I will even help you fix it up and get it nice and neat. Plus, we can be friends with no hard feelings.”
Then they look at you and respond, “Hmmmm… Well, like I said, I put a lot of work in that Humvee. You’re not seeing this from my side. So, I’m going to keep the Humvee, but I will take that F150 and let you fix it up for me just in case the police show up and take the Humvee…”
How this makes sense to you is beyond me.

*SVC*FP
I’m sorry you feel this way about such a little thing. It was my intentions to honor god and bring clean and funny pictures to brighten peoples’ day. Clearly this issue is far beyond just page names and you really need to check your heart, but that is between you and god. I hope you can find a way to honor god and share christ through your page as we did ours.   I hope you have a wonderful day. -SVCFP team

AT THIS POINT, THEY DEACTIVATED THEIR PAGE AND NARY A WORD WAS HEARD FOR ALMOST A MONTH

August 25
*SVC*FP
Dear Shelley, this is the page owner. After pending the deletion of this page i finally cancelled. After lots of prayer and thoughts, i have decided to leave this page up. I believe we are serving god by posting clean and funny pictures and its in my good faith the lord will let us keep doing so.
What meaning does the name of the page have, if we’re all doing it for the name of God. Why see it as a competition?
I understood your previous message and i will deny your offer to delete this page and start over.
This page will remain.
Any questions please message back,I am sorry it took so long to reply

Tom Thebomb
If you feel it is honoring God to ignore my request(s) to change the name, if you feel it is honoring God to ignore a trademark registration, if you feel it is honoring God to consciously and knowingly violate the law by keeping the name and ignoring the registration, then I guess there’s not much else to say that would change your mind.
I have a very different picture of what honoring God looks like, so this is all quite confusing to me. I’m truly saddened and grieved that people who profess Christianity can’t work together for a common good forcing one to hire counsel, but as you choose to willfully violate my trademark and ignore the law – I have no other choice.
I will forward this information to my attorneys and they’ll handle it from there. Thank you for letting me know. Have a good day.

*SVC*FP
‘Can’t work together for a common good’ That is irony at it’s finest. If you were willing to work together for a common good, you wouldnt be asking people to change their name…

Tom Thebomb
If people had come up with their own name, rather than basically the same thing as other pages were already using, there wouldn’t be a problem, now would it? As I do work together for the common good with a lot of pages.
You can point fingers at me, you can make me out to be petty, you can make me out to be the bad guy all you want. Or make it seem that I don’t want to work for the common good – you’d be very wrong, but feel free to do it all you’d like. There are countless other pages out there that I promote and help because we are working toward a common good.
But see, they never used a name that was the same as mine in the first place. Simple fact of the matter is – it is you, not I that isn’t willing to work together here. You found and saw my page and made this one – same name, asterisks and all. I asked some time back to please change the name so there wouldn’t be confusion. Back before there were so many likes you could change the name. You refused. Now you refuse to acknowledge the law.
I honestly HONESTLY cannot fathom how anyone – Christian or otherwise – is okay with continuing to knowingly violate another person’s registered trademark. I just don’t get it. I just don’t.
So, I say again… If you feel it is honoring God to ignore my request(s) to change the name, if you feel it is honoring God to ignore a trademark registration, if you feel it is honoring God to consciously and knowingly violate the law by keeping the name and ignoring the registration, then I guess there’s not much else to say that would change your mind. I will forward this information (and proof that your followers have thought this the same page as mine) to my attorneys and they’ll contact you shortly. Thank you. Have a good day.

*SVC*FP
Keep in mind that only 1 request to change your name after 200 likes is allowed, and a previous admin before me already tried this. Second, our page existed long before your trademark.
As far as im aware, quite a few messages ago you told me you would not bring in legal issues and WOULD give me the choice. nowhere in these messages have you stripped me of this choice so again im saying this page will remain until I have written proof telling me to shut it down by Facebook or other authorities.
Good day.

Tom Thebomb
It doesn’t matter that your page existed before the trademark registration. The trademark existed LONG before your page. The registration date has no bearing on an infringement. I began using the name in August of 2011. You can go look at the day my page was created. I actually had intellectual property rights from that day forward. The registration just makes it easier to enforce. Of course, that is enforcing it with people who actually obey the law, but I digress.
I have given you a choice repeatedly. Am I taking you to court? Probably not, but my attorney will be notifying you of your infringement as well as Facebook, who will then be forced to remove all pages that are infringing.
Again, I don’t understand how you can feel that this is right when it’s an outright violation and clearly against the law. I really don’t. It’s baffling, especially when you claim that you’re doing it for God and He’s, apparently, okay with it as well.
As I said, I’m done here.

And people say I’m mean, un-Christianly, unreasonable, hateful, etc etc etc. What am I missing? It feels like I’m being USED and DISREGARDED. If I am wrong about that – PLEASE – tell me how so.