FINALLY, what began almost a year ago, Entrepreneur Media Inc, publisher of Entrepreneur Magazine, has agreed to a settlement with Entrepreneur the Arts. While they verbally agreed to settle last June, it took another seven plus months to get their final settlement. So, needless to say, this has been a bit of a worry.
If you would like to know more about what happened, I wrote a series of posts about my battle with EMI. ( They are all under the category titled legal)
However, essentially what happened is that I elected to pursue placing a trademark on my logo for Entrepreneur The Arts, with the guidance of a trademark attorney, and much to my surprise, and his, we were served with the threat of litigation if we did not cease using the word Entrepreneur in the name.
EMI media has threatened and successfully stopped many start-up ventures and even others well established ventures from using the word ( see my post titled Tongue Tied). Fortunately, for me, while one of very few, I was able to reach a settlement with them by agreeing to permanently display a disclaimer with my logo. If you look at the ETA logo, you will see there already is one there. While my attorney was negotiating with EMI, as a good faith effort, he suggested I place a disclaimer under the logo to further demonstrate to EMI Media that there was no possibility that anyone coming to my site was confusing my website and work with their publications or website.
However, my settlement, reached last Friday, requires now that a differently worded disclaimer appear. Soon you will see different words under the logo.
It is a relief to once and for all have this behind me. Choosing to fight a two ton gorilla was a risk and it did cost me some money. But as a result of taking this risk, unlike many others who simply folded their tent and changed their business name, I was able to continue to use my name- Entrepreneur The Arts, get my trademark and refrain from a legal battle with EMI Media.
My hope is that as a result of my efforts, others who encounter the wrath of EMI might be able to also save their business name, that uses the common word entrepreneur, in their start-up venture.
