Twitpic Shutting Down Over Trademark Dispute 81
First time accepted submitter exiguus writes As of September 25th Twitpic will be no more. Twitter, allegedly, has threatened to deny them access to their API. Noah Everett said "Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours. Therefore, we have decided to shut down Twitpic." Resources will be made available to users to download their videos and photos, but a date when that function will be available has not been made available. "We'll let everyone know when this feature is live in the next few days."
Re:Wait, what? (Score:2, Informative)
Mod up. This is the only explanation that makes any sense.
Re:Wait, what? (Score:4, Informative)
It seems Twitter only wanted them to drop the application and not the name entirely.
Why do I feel like the entire business model of Twitpic was to sell out after receiving the valuable trademark? He didn't claim to get a cease and desist, barring him from using the clearly derived name for the derived service. Twitter seemed to be happy until Twitpic tried to get a legal stake in their name and asked for oppositional comment. Twitter drew a fairly generous line in the sand for a service that leaches off of theirs.
Protip: Don't become a legal threat to the only real value a company has (such as brand-it's not like the ability to post 140 characters at a time is an amazing feat) especially if your business is entirely dependent on them letting you play on their lawn.