Perhaps, but your original point was in reference to my post addressing that issue. The point is that a common meaning of the words doesn't equate to common usage of a phrase. Before he came along people didn't just go around talking about the "rich jerk." It wasn't a common phrase everyone used (still isn't... more of a niche phrase). Can't say I've met terribly many "polite" people in town... at least that wouldn't come up with more "colorful" language. Although glad to see another neighbor on here. Create a brand and use it first in sale, and you just may be able to.
Most of the links come from gotlinks, but this will be short lived. Google is good at spotting these low quality backlinks and will eventually devalue the site. --- There is also the possibly that the Rick Jerk could end up filing a complaint with Google and with the right documentation they will remove RICH JERK SCAMS from their index. You are pounding on their character and if this gets enough attention, you'll end up paying some very high fees down the road; and yes, so will the RICK JERK, rich or not. You are fortunate to have the time for this. Every minute spent on this could have been spent on a site that would bring real money. I have never read the book and I'm guessing this was the guys 5 minutes of fame and you'll force him into action by posting on DP and other forums. Of course, once Google grabs the content about the RICH JERK here on DP, this thread will be the number one result. You have put a lot of work into this. Writing articles, building backlinks, forums posts and more all for ? Either this guy is an acquaintance and you are jealous or you are really offended by the book! It is also possible that you are a real caring person out to warn the world of an injustice by the Rich Jerk!, but something tells me this is not the case.
The most interesting thing of this thread is: noboday talk about the content of that "famous" RJ e-book....
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78719206 It became a trademark...just last month!!!
When did you register the domain name? I assume the RichJerk registered his domain name before you, so he MIGHT have a case, but please dont back down. He is probably reading all this and laughing away, stand your grand...and keep us informed.
I have learned more about the rich jerk from this thread than any other marketing material put out by the rich jerk thus far. Great work on the SEO by the way. Definitely talk to a lawyer friend for some advice if you have a case to fight back against that jerk, because if it can be proven as a scam then court will rule in your favor. Hope everything works out.
Looks like the rich jerk is really rich GuessWhatiHeard.com is a division of CreditPro, Inc., which is a privately held corporation, headquartered in Carlsbad, CA. The company was founded in 2001. Management Team Kelly Felix - Founder & CEOKelly Felix is the founder of GuessWhatiHeard.com. Kelly has previously founded and operated many successful informational and financial websites, and has been doing so for several years. Many of these websites were later acquired by larger corporations. Kelly is also the founder of GuessWhatiHeard.com’s parent corporation, CreditPro, Inc., a multi-million dollar internet marketing corporation.
First use in business would matter more than registration dates, as long as they can prove it. Unless I mis-read it though, while the registration was processed last month, he filed for the trademark protection back in September.
This is a funny thread, and since I personally think the rich jerk is a big jerk, ill try to answear my best as a future law student :] Your domain was registred 05.04.2006, and the trademark was registred 14.11.2006. This means you where there BEFORE the trademark took affect. If I where you, I would just ignore him until he sends you anything written. I would also move the site off-shore, somewhere in amsterdam or asia. Something you should keep in mind! You are actually making money of his brand, and what your site is doing will cause his site to loose popularity. If the Rich Jerk desides to close down his site, no one will be searching for the Rick Jerk anymore, and neither would you get any traffic! This means, if the Rich Jerk goes down, you go down! Is it really worth the time and the fighting? Take a look at the income you have from the site, and if it's worth it! Fight him. If it's not, try selling it to him, someone else or just ignore him and let the site stay dead (even thought it's not worth it, it's probally making you a few dollars? Well, a few dollars is more than nothing).
Another approach would be to turn this into a spoof page. It has to be a real spoof, intending to be satirical or funny. Talk to your attorney about what constitutes acceptable spoof and what is just copyright infringement. It is different than you would think. For example (ask your laywer) I would look at making a satire page that makes fun of RJ, but are obviously fake scams. I could have a lot of fun with this, but I have to earn a living myself. Using multiple subheadings of "This is not a scam" could be turned into something very funny. This has to be done right, but it would allow you to keep your URL, your traffic, and your self respect. Then if you want to put a link to a site "rj-reviews" so much the better. And, by the way, it doesn't have to be good, just be intended to be satire or humor. Of course if it is good it will get more traffic.
Wow! You have a ton of sites about getting rich and most all of them recommend the RICH JERK book as the best book out there! Playing both sides here? For example, cashscamsrevealed.com, fatloss-scams-uncovered.com, getrichwithrichjerk.com, getrich3steps.com and gettingrichtoday.com all promote the rich jerk’s book. Yet sites like cashcowknowhow.com warn about cash scams but state that the Rich Jerk is legitimate. Should the rich jerk find all the sites that you have his name in Sam, you’ll have a lot more problems on your hands. If it goes to court, you are going to have to explain why you promote and make money from the book while also saying that it’s a scam. There must be some money in the get rich quick affiliate business, you have literally hundreds of sites dedicated to this topic. I love the originality of The Rich Chick (cashchick.com). BTW - What is richjerkadmin.com used for?
HaHaHaHaHa Great Job One of the problems you will come across is that ****sucks.com is not a violation of copyright while yours maybe - still, your site could be considered "educational" in some sense Here is what I would do - create a new web site with a differnt domain name, use rjscams.com or something and place links to that site all over richjerkscams.com as "the other/future home of RickJerkScams.com" Also, you may want to write that you may be sued on the web site and just absolutely trash The Rich Jerk more than you already have saying they are scared and are suing because you did something for free that he charges $xxx+ for. You may even want to offer some of your own SEO Tips that will help you rank for free. Chances are if they sue you lose, but if you have a fan base, you can get traffic to your new site and SEO that as well. If they take your site down, be sure to transfer all your content to this new site Just a Tip Sorry if this has been posted before - this is a long thread
If he gets sued and loses, the amount he'd make from that "fan" base likely wouldn't come close to covering what he could lose. It's not worth it. Just because a lot of people don't go past the C&D, it doesn't mean he won't. And you've got to reasonably assume he could afford to make your life miserable w/ a lawsuit, whether or not he wins in the end. Can you really afford that financially, and time-wise? Just get a new domain and redirect the current one. Like someone else said, at least in that case you won't lost PR, traffic, etc. If he just goes after you and gets the domain, you lose it all. You can always keep looking into it after you redirect, and can switch back later if it all works out.
The guy that registered the ####sucks.com domains fought it and won. Microsoft wasnt too happy about it. Fight it.
Depending on how context relates to the law "rich jerk" is a very common term. At least around here. To be somewhat PC anyway. ie:" He's a rick jerk.". Thats common usage. But common usage varies from region to region and within context.