GuyverII

Only one?

techgirl

That's freaking brilliant. One of the family bloggers needs to blog that (and give you due and proper credit).

84fiero

I'm now officially more tired of hearing about Uber than I am of hearing about the Maldives or Chase UR "First Fridays"!

I'm sure he does it all after-hours btw he's not a government employee - his "day job" is [redacted]

HMPS

And how many have used multiple IDs to get multiple discount cents ?

kokonutz

Well if we're going for proper attribution, it was Lisa's idea, natch. She was like, 'Why are you not having a martini so you can pick up your son when you have an Uber account!?'

So we actually set him up with his own Uber (and took the referral credit!) on his credit card (yeah, he has a miles earning card...Chase Ink Bold, bloggers should be so proud of him!).

He has abused Uber a couple of times, using it to take his friends for a ride...but I find out right away. And best of all, I can look at the receipt and know if he was lying about where he has been. ^

If I ever put my TalkBoard service on my professional CV someone please shoot me! :-:

Busted!

techgirl

Kudos to Lisa then (I should have known! ) but brilliant all around!

I bet it's recycled somewhere within the month. (Not by me... I stay within my wheelhouse which means that kids, credit cards, manufactured spend, and most airline/rental car programs are outside my scope!)

sbm12

I cannot speak to the purchase of the domain name. I can, however, say with certainty that "Prior to Boarding" existed well before F2B did. I know this because my blog joined the Boarding Area group under that banner. I have email communications using the brand name as far back as November 2009 and I'm sure there are more but those are the earliest I could find this morning.

The brand existed and was used in the travel/points/miles blog space. It went dormant and now it is back. That is a simple fact.

I know that priortoboarding.com was registered as far back as 2007; adding the new "spelling" doesn't really change that from a brand perspective.

The Deal Mommy

I'm surprised you would say this as I expect you have more than a cursory knowledge of SEO and marketing. Details matter, and they were chosen carefully.

Don't suppose you could offer up a trademark? I can.

sbm12

I know a lot about that stuff. I also don't expect that it matters at all in the SEO world. If you have evidence to the contrary feel free to offer it up.

You have a trademark on the number 2??

No one is using First2Board except the F2B blogs. I would be quite surprised if a claim against P2B by F2B was successful based on the current filing of the mark or its history.

For those curious, here's the filing: http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86...e=statusSearch.

The claim of first use in commerce of November 2012 is interesting given that the site didn't launch until early 2013. And even then sample used in the filing is not what I recall the initial logo as being. The F2B filing claims TM rights on "The literal element of the mark consists of First2Board." Good luck pursuing House of Miles on that one. I would find better ways to spend the cash.

cybaslacka

what really grinds my gears is when one of the bloggers posts something without giving proper credit. i would see the post on slickdeals or fatwallet first, 1 hour later, i see ba showing "first seen here heels whatever"

kokonutz

Jumping on the copycat bandwagon, I am going to name my blog Final2Board.

After all, one can only safely be the final passenger to board in international first class! ^

Seriously, though, this reminds me of the time some of the MP guys decided to start their own awards program (while they were still actively posting on FlyerTalk) and called them the FT (frequent travel) awards.

Once they (mostly) left FlyerTalk to create a competing site they quickly re-introduced the Freddie Awards, getting away from the FT 'brand.'

84fiero

Too late, it's already been trademarked...




I still tend to think Prior2Boarding doesn't roll off the tongue very well. But maybe that's just me and my tongue.

sbm12

It was the Frequent Traveler Awards and FlyerTalk was a sponsor of the event.

PWMTrav

I don't have a dog in this fight and honestly don't care too much either way. That said, at a glance, there is a claim. Whether or not it's successful is up to someone else with knowledge of all of the facts and representation of a party. I haven't/am not going to do the research even with the public documents to determine that.

It'd be a matter of whether Prior2Boarding is "confusingly similar" to First2Board, as both are being used in the same classes for the purpose of trademark.

Beyond that, it's ultimately a suit for injunctive relief and damages. The damages portion can get hairy for both parties - I can see both sides having to quantify gains/losses, and that may involve filing things like commission rates, historical conversion rates, etc. I'm guessing both parties would have a contract with their affiliates agreeing not to disclose that.

If there ends up being a reasonable claim to be made, both parties are better off pursuing a settlement prior to discovery.

Of course, I'm not your lawyer, I'm not their lawyer, I'm not anyone here's lawyer. This isn't legal advice. I'm probably not a lawyer where you live. Standard stuff.

carpentry4thought

So you're basically saying that a reality TV show could be made out of this?

Edit: What if that's the bloggers' intention?! Tentative title: Points in Suburbia, Points in the Courtroom: Stories behind the headlines.

I came up with all of this! No one use it or I'll sue all of you!