Received a rather disturbing email message today, carrying serious implications for CenterTao. Please read the original message:

Subject: Trademark Infringement
From: "Olaf P. Rolis"
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 01:26:43 +0700
To:

Dear Sir or Madam:

Buddha Air Pvt. Ltd owns the trademark for the term BUDDHA and it has come to our attention that you are employing the term "buddha", or some variation thereof, on your web site. For example, on March 7, 2005, you were using the term ?buddha? at: http://www.centertao.org/buddha.php to label and/or describe various philosophical concepts. It is difficult to determine if your use of the term Buddha corresponds with the use of the term in our company branding.

Buddha Air Pvt. Ltd has enjoyed the use of its valuable BUDDHA trademark for over five years. Your use of the term "buddha" in connection with any products other than Buddha Air travel services would be an infringement of Gerber's Buddha Air, federally registered trademark BUDDHA. A United States Patent and Trademark Office website copy of that registration, No. 1,292,982, is attached.

Please also keep in mind that Buddha Air?s trademark prevents uses that are confusingly similar to the actually registered trademark. Typically, confusingly similarity may be present in either sight, sound, or meaning of the term. Obviously, the sight, sound, and meaning of similar terms such as "Buddhism" and "Buddhist," for example, would also be an infringement of our trademark.

We ask that you reply to this letter via email within 15 days indicating your written agreement to cease your usage of this registered trademark. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me at [number removed]. Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Olaf P. Rolis
Marketing Coordinator

You can see Buddha Air's web site at http://www.buddhaair.com/ . I am going to be looking into this matter over the course of the next day or two and will be contacting them about this soon. In the meantime, I really do NOT want to stir up any legal trouble with this company, so until further notice, all CenterTao members are prohibited from using the term "buddha" in their posts until further notice. Posts that contain this term may be edited or deleted without warning. I will be removing all references to Buddha from the site within the week. Thank you for your understanding while we sort out this mess. Hopefully we can ask for a compromise, perhaps a legal disclaimer or something. I will keep you posted as the situation develops.

To summarize: All CenterTao users are prohibited from using the term "Buddha" until further notice!

Sincerely,

Luke Abbott
Webmaster

uhhh, not being a legal eagle, I would not think that they have a leg to stand on because YOUR use of the name Buddha is in reference to the Lord Buddha, not some air service. if this is true then EVERY Buddhist website would be in violation of this, and I know that ain't gonna happen.

while typing this, I also remembered what today is. April first ??!! this could be some kinda strange joke.

unclebob:

while typing this, I also remembered what today is. April first ??!! this could be some kinda strange joke.

Wow, unclebob, you just might be on to something! On the other hand, do you really think such a well-respected company like BuddhaAir to pull such a prank on a humble site like CenterTao!? Doesn't seem likely . . .

Happy April Fools' Day, everybody!

Luke

I'm glad reason took the place of action. My first course was to head to their site and see just what was up and why .. but not in such nice terms.

Then it dawned on me as what day is was. You did have me going for a couple of minutes. LOL a really good one Luke.

peace out and regards,
bob

Now that is excellent April Foolery Luke! My April Fools joke telling you and Kyle that your karate teacher called to say that your class would be held by the fountain in the Capitola Shopping Mall was pretty lame. (as you guys let me know) I know,, it takes a sophisticated mind. Mama.

Luke Abbott:

Received a rather disturbing email message today, carrying serious implications for CenterTao. Please read the original message:

You will love this one. I created a website to publicise my coffee. It has the word Pele in it (refering to the Hawaiian volcano Goddess). I received a very real letter from lawyers representing some soccer player who appears to have decided to use Pele in his name. I never responded to their letter, because I did not have to. This Pele was around before their client. Also my site had nothing to do with soccer.