Mamalogues vs. Momologue: A trademark battle in the blogosphere
Just a day after blogging about the St. Louis Bloggers Guild and talking to one of the organizers, local blogger Dana Loesch (at left), she is in the news again over a dispute with a California blogger over the name of the blog.
Loesch’s blog, Mamalogues.com, is trademarked. According to a story by ABC TV station KERO Ch. 23 in Bakersfield, Loesch, through her lawyer, has sent a “cease and desist” letter to the author of a Fresno-based blog called Momologue.com.
Says the story:
Fresno mommy-blogger Genevieve Hinson said a recent cease-and-desist letter from St. Louis blogger, Dana Loesch, wrongly claims infringement over blog territory.
According to Hinson, author of Momologue.com, she’s being bullied by Loesch’s lawyers to give up her DNS and domain name, cease all related blogging, refrain from using momologue and any variation of it online and pay $2,500 in court fees.
The story has upset Loesch, who Twittered about it yesterday, “I feel bullied. It’s sad when you try to protect your intellectual property and you’re smeared in the press without your knowledge.” Loesch also said this sort of battle over intellectual property was “exactly why I founded (the bloggers guild) — to protect bloggers rights.”
UPDATE: Here’s Loesch’s blog entry on her Mamalogues blog about this controversy.
Hinson is quoted in the KERO story: “With as common as the word momologue is, I don’t think I’m infringing on her in any way. My one blog is not diluting her trademark because it’s (name) so widely used everywhere…they’re using it in everyday language.” She points out the word is used in UrbanDictionary.com.
Yet, Loesch does have a trademark on the name.
Bullying? By whom? An interesting case.
Oh, here’s the full-disclosure part, mentioned also in earlier posts: Loesch used to write a a blog for STLtoday and a column for the site. The column was also called Mamalogues (and linked to her Mamalogues blog) with her permission.
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Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
A trademark is a trademark. In this case it seems pretty cut and dry. If it goes to court, Dana will win.
By the way, I was thinking about starting a blog called “Virtual Street Louis” or Virtual St. Louis. Hope that’s ok!