"Even though they did not own the right to the word "gram" at the time, I basically caved as my financial options were limited." Great justice system in USA. The land of the ... money.
Pretty much what I told the main lawyer there — he was circling around words, and I had waited for my bombshell moment and finally said what I'd been preparing for quite a while: "but... looking at all the trademarks, I can see you guys own 'insta, instagram, facebook,' [...a few more] but... I just can't seem to find 'gram', can you refer me to a filing or registration number?" ... silence.
That moment, sitting at home in my jogging pants, I thought I'd literally just beat a tough-nut San Francisco corporate lawyer in his own game and got away with it.
After a long pause he basically said, "yes, there's nothing filed yet, but we'll get to that, it's already being prepared. Regardless, we'd have to file this issue in San Francisco this afternoon, so you'd have to come over and sort this out with our firm in court locally, over the next few months, or years."
And I said I'll call him back. And then caved in. What can you do.
That moment, sitting at home in my jogging pants, I thought I'd literally just beat a tough-nut San Francisco corporate lawyer in his own game and got away with it.
After a long pause he basically said, "yes, there's nothing filed yet, but we'll get to that, it's already being prepared. Regardless, we'd have to file this issue in San Francisco this afternoon, so you'd have to come over and sort this out with our firm in court locally, over the next few months, or years."
And I said I'll call him back. And then caved in. What can you do.