This past Sunday night, I received an email from a local cycling clown named Kevin (last name withheld for his privacy) who once owned the domain name www.ChurchOfCycling.org™ which I bought back in 2015 from GoDaddy.com. He intimated that he was going to sue me for trademark violation for my use of the phrase "church of cycling" in this Weebly site's former title, "Father Dan's Church of Cycling." That's a little ridiculous. The phrase "church of cycling" was in use before his disappointing life began, along with hundreds of variations on the idea that riding a bike might be better for the soul than driving to church. (See the "About" page of this site for several examples.) But Kevin figures that since he printed it on a jersey once upon a time, nobody else can even whisper it. I don't know much about trademark law, but I doubt that Kevin should permanently, exclusively own rights to use a phrase that had previously been part of the vernacular of a sport or hobby just because he printed it on clothing and sold it to others (especially if he didn't report the income of those sales to the IRS).
Sadly, some people think the world revolves around them and they aren't necessarily reasonable. Kevin the Klown™ also claimed that I "stole" the www.ChurchOfCycling.org domain. I don't know how to steal a domain and I have no interest in doing so. I purchased www.ChurchOfCycling.org on the open market via legitimate means from the largest domain registry in the country (www.GoDaddy.com) long before he contacted me with his whiny complaint. The domain was clearly abandoned. I've owned and subsequently abandoned or sold lots of domain names in the past. I have enough moral fiber to keep me from threatening the new domain owners with lawsuits.
Whatever. You can't argue with crazy, and I like to sleep well at night. So I try to keep virtual strangers with mental illness—especially those outside of my extended family who aren't willing to seek professional help—out of my daily life. When I was telling this story to someone who knows Kevin fairly well, that person said that Kevin might be bipolar. If so, I'm sorry about that, but I also can't fix that. So, call me "chicken" for giving up on using "Father Dan's Church of Cycling" so easily, but but this is just a blog that hardly anybody reads, and life is too short for unnecessary conflict.
An attorney friend told me that many trademark lawsuits are just attempts at extortion. Maybe Kevin just needs the money to pay alimony. And maybe I could successfully defend against this flimsy trademark claim. But one of my attorneys pointed out that it could be an empty victory for me if this litigious clown can't afford the court's order to pay my legal fees, which could grow to tens of thousands of dollars. All right then. Over the name of a bicycling blog? No thanks.
Bottom line: I'm happy to change the name if it keeps this pathetic man-boy out of my life, free to stew in his own bad juju. So here we are, successfully moved from a church to a chapel of cycling at Father Dan's Bike Chapel™ on Weebly and at www.BikeChapel.com™...yet another old cycling expression in a domain name. 🚴 Yay!
Smile & wave.
Sadly, some people think the world revolves around them and they aren't necessarily reasonable. Kevin the Klown™ also claimed that I "stole" the www.ChurchOfCycling.org domain. I don't know how to steal a domain and I have no interest in doing so. I purchased www.ChurchOfCycling.org on the open market via legitimate means from the largest domain registry in the country (www.GoDaddy.com) long before he contacted me with his whiny complaint. The domain was clearly abandoned. I've owned and subsequently abandoned or sold lots of domain names in the past. I have enough moral fiber to keep me from threatening the new domain owners with lawsuits.
Whatever. You can't argue with crazy, and I like to sleep well at night. So I try to keep virtual strangers with mental illness—especially those outside of my extended family who aren't willing to seek professional help—out of my daily life. When I was telling this story to someone who knows Kevin fairly well, that person said that Kevin might be bipolar. If so, I'm sorry about that, but I also can't fix that. So, call me "chicken" for giving up on using "Father Dan's Church of Cycling" so easily, but but this is just a blog that hardly anybody reads, and life is too short for unnecessary conflict.
An attorney friend told me that many trademark lawsuits are just attempts at extortion. Maybe Kevin just needs the money to pay alimony. And maybe I could successfully defend against this flimsy trademark claim. But one of my attorneys pointed out that it could be an empty victory for me if this litigious clown can't afford the court's order to pay my legal fees, which could grow to tens of thousands of dollars. All right then. Over the name of a bicycling blog? No thanks.
Bottom line: I'm happy to change the name if it keeps this pathetic man-boy out of my life, free to stew in his own bad juju. So here we are, successfully moved from a church to a chapel of cycling at Father Dan's Bike Chapel™ on Weebly and at www.BikeChapel.com™...yet another old cycling expression in a domain name. 🚴 Yay!
Smile & wave.
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