The Email I Sent to the Owners of Tinycatpants.com

As you’ll recall, dear readers, tinycatpants.com was bought out from under me by somebody who links to folks who are selling stuff.  I am unhappy.  Coble reminded me that Smiley owns “thedryspot.net” and not .com and, aside from some gastrointestinal issues, he seems to have suffered no ill effects from being a .net instead of a .com, and so I have purchased tinycatpants.net.  I’d like to retrieve tinycatpants.com at some point, but it won’t be the end of the world if I don’t.

Dear Sirs:

Over the years I’ve run a blog at tinycatpants.blogspot.com, tinycatpants.squarespace.com, and tinycatpants.wordpress.com.  I sell products with the phrase “tiny cat pants” on them.  I find it a little suspicious that, just as tinycatpants.com became available, you swooped in and bought it.  What possible use do you have for the phrase “tiny cat pants” except to poach off my traffic and create confusion among readers looking for my blog?

Perhaps you’re unaware of laws that protect me from unfair competition.  But by buying tinycatpants.com and using it as a means by which to sell products, I believe you’re a.) intentionally profiting from confusion caused by people who are looking for my blog “Tiny Cat Pants” and end up at tinycatpants.com and b.) intentionally profiting from people who see tinycatpants.com, assume I have something to do with it, and assume, obviously incorrectly, that I endorse the products you’re trying to sell.  I believe this violates both my right to publicity, since Tiny Cat Pants is so closely associated with me, and is a misappropriation of my property, as you’re clearly hoping to benefit from confusion between the blog Tiny Cat Pants and your site.

I’d like to settle this, either by seeing the content of tinycatpants.com changed to something that doesn’t benefit from being confused with Tiny Cat Pants, the blog, or by having the domain turned over to me, since, clearly, if anyone should benefit from Tiny Cat Pants, it should be me.

Sincerely,