6 years ago my brother and I created a website (utilizing storage at Geocities) for our independent game development. The site, EMWare Productions, remained on Geocities until 2002 when they finally removed the site due to its inactive state.
The following is an official Fed-ex’d cease and desist order that I received in the mail in November 2000 from emWare Inc, a tech company in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Needless to say, it provided a few good laughs, especially when we explained to them via email correspondence that “EMWare Productions” was an imaginary company started by two brothers with a lot of time on their hands.
Man, hate to be the party pooper, but… I swear I read this very same thing here a while ago. Coffee-induced flashbacks? Gotta love the grassroots feel of your company in all its cutting edge HTML glory circa ’98, though.
Beto: You’re right, Beto. I moved it from the older archives, cleaned it up a bit and posted it anew. You, being a long time reader (okay, several months or so) would know that.
As for the design, it even sported a “starry” background if you can believe that. The Wayback machine doesn’t save graphics, just text unfortunately.
Erik, you gotta give us legal dudes something to do, even if it creates laughter
Under the Previews section of your EMWare site, one of the game titles is Goudy Stout.
I find that and the description of the game extremely funny. Thanks for a good laugh. BTW, were you into graphic design at the time, or was naming the game after a typeface coincidence?
I sue the brothers Sagen and Sagen.….too much time on their hands and their room was always dirty, full of dirty little secrets of plotting to take over EMWare with a hostile take-over!
Yep…sue those Sagen Brothers…take it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Luc: I’m sure you (or your fellow lawyers) have run into similar situations. My brother had a company contact him in regards to his AOLIM screenname, which was Biospark at the time. The company in question, Biospark Industries I believe, were ready to sue for “blatant” name infringement. After speaking with the owner, they cleared up things and the allegations were dropped. Frankly, it was absurd and I don’t think he (as in the owner of the company) had a leg to stand on.
Mike: At the time I was 18 or 19 and I was just beginning to get into graphic design. You’re right, Goudy Stout was named from the font of the same name and for good reason, it just sounds like a paunchy, aloof kind of individual. It brings to mind Garth Brooks or Benny Hill.
Dad: Yes, sue us for all of the money we’ve made on the name.