If you didn't read about it in our news roundup this morning, it's likely you've heard the rumblings across the blogosphere, from GOOD to TreeHugger and Facebook: the Dervaes family, founders of urbanhomestead.org, have trademarked the phrases "urban homestead" and "urban homesteading" and are requesting (by means of an official notification letter) that bloggers, gardeners, farmers, and food writers properly credit those words with a registered trademark symbol. Not surprisingly, this has many people in an uproar.
Here's a sampling of what I've been reading around the web. (And for the record, I agree that the whole thing is pretty ridiculous.)
• From GOOD:
On February 18, the Dervaes family issued a press release which reiterates their stand, noting that after ten years, their website, http://www.urbanhomestead.org is the "largest and most comprehensive Urban Homesteading website." (It may be useful to note here that the site was originally found at PathtoFreedom.com, and used that URL for many years.) But here's the kicker: "The Dervaes family project is known as the Urban Homestead®. While they did not come up with the name Urban Homesteading®, they defined its current, specific application." The statement goes on to use a Wikipedia article (?) to define what they do. And they also devote an entire paragraph to explaining the difference between blogging and journalism (thanks!).
• Kelly Koyne and Erik Knutzen (authors of The Urban Homestead, which you can see in the top photo) as told to GOOD:
[GOOD reached out to] Knutzen and Coyne who pointed out that this kind of action goes against a key part of the homesteading movement. "Erik and I strongly believe that this movement must be open-source and accessible to all," says Coyne. "Once upon a time we would have learned homesteading skills at our mother's knee, but now we have to teach each other, share what we know, and help each other along. Generosity of spirit is an essential characteristic of the 'modern homesteader'—and I see this spirit everywhere we go."
• From the OCWeekly blog:
[The Dervaes Family] have gone as far as to sanctimoniously lecture the world on their website... since the controversy broke about the intricacies of trademark law to, as they put it, "cut through the mob of misinformation...of course, urban homesteading is 'old' but we used it in a new and unique way and that is what is registered." Actually, no. The Dervaeses aren't just going after people who have ripped off their writings (a perfectly legitimate legal move, mind you) but ANYONE using the terms "urban homestead" and "urban homesteading."
• Heidi Kooy of Itty Bitty Farm in the City as told to BlogHer:
If they could only bury the self-aggrandizing flag and realize that all of us urban homesteaders have something of real value to contribute to the conversation. Each urban homestead is different - different projects, different configurations.. Each person or family faces their own challenges. Most of my urban farmy friends read loads of blogs from all kinds of folks in all kinds of situations. We learn from each other. I'm certain there is room for all of us at the urban homesteading table.
• From TreeHugger:
Part of the confusion stems from wondering why on Earth these terms (and others, including PATH TO FREEDOM™, HOMEGROWN REVOLUTION™, and FREEDOM GARDENS™ would ever be granted trademarks in the first place. After all, they're all fairly common terms that have been used for decades - particularly URBAN HOMESTEADING™ and FREEDOM GARDENS™. What's next? Do people start trademarking phrases like "green grass" or "vegetable garden?" How about "organic garden?" And if someone can trademark one type of lifestyle, such as URBAN HOMESTEADING™, then what about others, such as "suburbanite," "soccer mom," or "heavy drinker?"
The second, and perhaps biggest, source of confusion is why the Dervaes family would trademark these terms in the first place. Why effectively take these words away from the community at large (unless we credit them, of course) when language and labels are such a huge part of what holds a community together? They've said that they did so to protect their intellectual property. As someone who writes for a living, I get that. 100%. There's a special place in Hades for plagiarizers and content scrapers. I just don't understand how trademarking phrases that have been in existence since at least the 1970s (if you're being conservative) and that they didn't invent, protects their intellectual property. If that's the case, I'm so going to trademark "Detroit gardener." I am one, after all. And I am totally unique.
A Facebook page Take Back Urban Homesteading! has also sprung up in response to this. And it certainly doesn't sound like ANYONE is for this idea.
You can read the Dervaes family response to this, as well as a copy of the letter they've reportedly sent out to bloggers, right here.
Tell us: what do you think?
(Image: The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, modified according to the new requirements from the Dervaes family, which say that "when discussing general homesteading or other people’s projects, they should be referred to using terms such as ‘modern homesteading,’ ‘urban sustainability projects,’ or similar descriptions.")
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Not only do they tell us not to use a specific phrase that they didn't create, they give a list of phrases that we should use instead? How kind.
All I can say is WTF.
How completely and totally absurd. Honestly, I think they've got a lot of nerve to claim that they somehow created the urban homesteading movement. And Freedom Garden?!? Are they going to go back in time and trademark Victory Garden too? Ridiculous.
Ooo a trademark problem!
I can see why people would be in an uproar about this. I think that at least some of the anger comes from confusion over just how far trademark protection goes. Just to be clear, a trademark that is as descriptive as this one is not a very strong one. I am not sure what the people at the Urban Homestead website are saying (certainly, they are probably trying to protect their mark as strongly as they can, as is in their best interest to do), but even the strongest trademarks do not disallow all use of the words themselves if they were words that existed before. Urban Homestead can keep people from using those words as a trademark (in other words, to promote or denote a product or brand), but can't really keep people from using the words descriptively. For example, I couldn't call a store I recently opened Best Buy, and I probably couldn't market a line of laptop bags called Best Buy, but I could call a book I wrote "Best Buys of the Year" or say in an ad, "This lamp is the best buy out there" (as long as neither of those things are referring to Best Buy the electronics store). This is a bit of an oversimplification, but a trademark protection does not let a trademark owner take a common phrase out of its common usage.
To get a bit more lawyer-y here, for anyone who knows what I am talking about, is it possible that Urban Homestead is trying to make the point that its definition of "urban homestead" is somehow original, and worthy of protection as an original term? If so, it would seem to me that their own description of their website, using the word generically, really severely undercuts that argument, and that they wouldn't get very far with it.
Seriously? Generosity, sharing information and helping people out are part of the basic tenets of urban home-steading(s). How did they even get a trademark for that?!?
All of that sounds reasonable, irenie, until you look at the ways they've been trying to enforce the trademark. They sent one of the warning letters to the publisher of the book at the top of the page (they should retroactively rename the book?). They sent google a DMCA takedown notice because the same book shows up in a google search of Amazon. They sent a warning letter to a library that taught a one-time urban homesteading class.
What a shame that no one seems to know anything about history! "The 1974 Urban Homesteading Hearings held before the Subcommittee on the Judiciary of the Committee on the District of Columbia, House of Representatives in the 93rd Congress" predates the Durvaes' Family efforts to own the term by a good quarter century!
The Dervaes have been doing a lot of backpedaling, providing misinformation and pulling down of statements they have previously made.
I personally take issue with the use of the word homestead in current day due to historical implications, however to trademark a way of being, a lifestyle and/or action is ludicrous. A land grab if I ever saw one.
I have written more here:http://growandresist.com/2011/02/16/urban-homestead-act-2-1/
WTF? Does this mean I can't say Pepsi without getting sued? Bull. You can't copyright language.
REFUSE TO LOSE.
URBAN HOMESTEADING.
Bite me.
Seriously? Get a clue, people. This inane attempt at absuridity adds up to free advertising. You have been outsmarted!
The blogosphere is abuzz with outrage which only serves to put their *name* out there (no I won't dignify it by naming it).
And every mere mention moves it closer to the top in the search engines which results in even more *popularity* (and I use the term loosely).
If you're really that outraged, IGNORE IT. Let it go. Don't give it the time of day. Otherwise, you're just playing their game...which is what it's all about.
What's that Hollywood saying? [something along the lines of] any publicity is good publicity?
selah.
Pretty ballsy, since these "trademarkers" are NOT the authors of the book pictured above. If anything, the authors of that book could say, "Hey, we wrote the book on urban homesteading. WE'RE trademarking it, kthnxbai."
Absurd. Also, what discerning said. It would never hold up in court, but it gets them free publicity.
@mollyjade - Duly noted. It seems that The Urban Homestead is pretty confused about the potential scope of their trademark protection, too!
You can trademark anything and enforcement of proprietary claims is hella difficult and usually relies on bullying tactics like letters from lawyers, etc. Remember when Paris Hilton trademarked "That's Hot?" Didn't change the way I described Texas summers.
I propose an all-out assault on the term: either changing the common use of the term (ugh, waiting to get into that bar is like urban homesteading) in order to frustrate their definitional claim to ownership or at least aggressive editing of their authoritative source, good ol' Wikipedia.
As a name I understand (remember the Apple vs. Apple kerfuffle?). Trademarking terminology, that's just silly.
It may not hold up in court, but the trademark owners are telling people to change the language on their blogs, saying they want to try and avoid legal action. To me, that says they WILL pursue legal action if necessary. Maybe it never wins in court, but it still costs boatloads of time and money for frivilous lawsuits because the courts are too *%&^ stupid to throw them out.
AT, you ask what I think? Would be nice if they'd continue to be a part of the forward thinking and moving conversation on the topic of self sufficiency rather than divert everyone's attention to their need for linguistic territorial domination. What, maybe I should trademark the phrase 'linguistic territorial domination'? For my time, and it won't be spent on their blog, they can go bury their heads in their urban backyard homesteaded garden compost pile. Me... I'll head to my pantry and my garden, both in an urban setting that I homestead, and just be really grateful that there are others writing on the topic. Hey, AT, you asked what I think!
Go ahead and call me paranoid but I just really wonder what the Dervaes clan are trying to accomplish by trademarking such common terms like urban homesteading. The recycling symbol is not even trademarked!
Of course they should hang onto their intellectual property and defend it but this is not on the same level. I'm guessing they have financial plans for the term although they probably just rendered it worthless by trademarking it and with their attempts at enforcing the trademark. People will use something else now.
are you sure they didn't mean urbane homestead
this has been really disappointing to read all week. as an LA resident, i've been to the dervaes' farm, bought their absolutely delicious homegrown fare, and attended a couple pot lucks they host. i want to believe that this is a very misguided attempt to grow their business and continue to earn income and keep working from home, but these C&D letters are utterly outrageous, and a total 180 from a group who previously held backyard seed exchange meetups to protest patenting of garden seeds.
it would be helpful, to say they least, if they addressed some of the actions and accusations they're claiming are "outright lies" on twitter. they've been great community leaders in the past, i hope they realize how wrong a move this was and get back on the right path.
Back in July 2010 it was first publicly Published for Opposition on the uspto.gov website. However at that point if no one objects to the filing they will rubber stamp it and collect their fees.
In the past Urban Homestead had been registered for a retail clothing store CO. Now Jules Dervaes has gone on record to defend their actions to protect their business and the likes of Nike and Apple have registered trademars which is correct but is a skewed point of view.
First Nike has the registered trademark of Nike and not 'Shoe' as we all know Nike makes shoes but they are not able to Trademark 'Shoe' as that is a generic term/word.
Now on to Apple. Their actual Trademark is Apple Computers and not just Apple as it is a generic term/work.
Thus the term/word 'Urban Homestead or Urban Homesteading is not enforceable as it is a generic term/word like shoe or apple or tree or car...
The only reason they were able to get this mark through is no one made a fuss during the filing process; however, this is not like a marriage 'speak now or forever hold your peace' just bring the issue before a Judge and with the previous uses of the generic term/word and that trade mark wont be worth the paper it is written on.
I've written a blog post on the subject as well, which you can read here: http://www.mysuburbanhomestead.com/writers-targeted-common-phrases-devraes-familytake-action/
A reader of mine asked the Devraes family and they deny taking legal action against anyone. But I personally have heard from two businesses today that use the term--both of which had their facebook pages taken down by the Devraes family.