Why Was 'Urban Homesteading' Issued a Trademark in the First Place?

Is this book ― published in June 2008 ― evidence that the Dervaes family's claim to the term "urban homesteading" is full of shit?

SFoodie's Sean Timberlake weighs in today at Punk Domestics on the fight over usage of "urban homesteading" and its variations. Timberlake explains:

In October of last year, the Dervaes family, of Homestead in the City in Pasadena, ... acquired registered trademark status for both "Urban Homestead" and "Urban Homesteading" ― and have been sending notifications to blogs and other sites that use those terms to either change the usage or apply the ® symbol and give credit to them for it.

Since yesterday, when the story blew up, OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano has been documenting the Dervaeses idiocy in real time, idiocy that includes firing off cease-and-desist letters to DIY blogs (also: the Santa Monica Public Library, which hosted an urban homesteading event) who use the term.

Timberlake wonders about the Dervaeses' legal bullying here in the Bay Area, notably against Oakland's Institute of Urban Homesteading, which Timberlake says has had its Facebook page blocked. (For more, including an interview with the Institute of Urban Homesteading's K. Ruby Blume, check out the story by the Bay Citizen's Twilight Greenaway. "'They're trying to boot out everybody whose using urban homesteading to describe what they do, so they can make it distinctive,' says Blume. 'That's what a lot of big corporations do.'")

Timberlake again:

To my mind, the US Patent and Trademark Office made an error in judgment in allowing these terms to be trademarked because of exactly that. In fact, the Dervaes' filing had been previously denied for that reason. Nicole of FARMcurious did a little digging, and found that "on Dec 9, 2008 their original application was refused because 'Many entities provide a variety of print and online publications and services on the same subject matter.' In order to execute their trademark application, they had to go back and show evidence that they had 'acquired distinctiveness' through exclusive (which we know to be untrue) and extensive (which is not deniable) use of the term. What I don't understand is why the application was approved in the end; even though they could show extensive use, they certainly couldn't demonstrate exclusive use of the term." Best evidence: A book titled The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City, written by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutsen, was published in June of 2008. The cat was clearly well and truly out of the bag.

Want to protest the Dervaeses' dickishness? Take a stand at a Facebook page that's sprung up to protest the Pasadena couple's strongarm tactics, Take Back Urban Home-steading(s), accessorized with typographical tricks to evade copyright infringement, apparently. Or you could take to the streets, armed with bee smokers and pruning hooks. Grrr.

Follow us on Twitter: @sfoodie, and like us on Facebook. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com

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Jason Riedy

Trademarks cannot be deferentially enforced. Unless they enforce it against the US Government and many state governments who have been using that term, everyone else can just giggle at their inanity.

Carlie

okay I have followed this for ages and I can say read their blog as it says clearly they have not sent out any letters it is a hoax which is separate to the trademark thing. Which is also not a copyright find out what the laws are relating to yourself before being caught up in a internet rumor mill. direct from their blog "Not in Our NameTo who it may concern.There are accounts that bloggers are receiving “stop or pay up” letters regarding the trademarks. This is a hoax and the demand is not being made by us.Tweet this! Dervaes Family Has Done no Harm. Seek truth, blogging is not reporting. Stop being a victim of Rumor Mill."

Punk Domestics

The Dervaeses seem to be going to great lengths to obfuscate their actions in my opinion. They assert so strongly that they have not sent "cease and desist" or "stop or pay up" letters -- and this is true, the letter does not say either of those things. But they do not deny that they sent the "normal, professional and informative" letter that very overtly states their claim to the terms URBAN HOMESTEAD(R) and URBAN HOMESTEADING(R), and that any use of those terms must be cited correctly or alternative language used. So while the letter may not explicitly state that the user cease and desist, it is a veiled threat.

Grace Pay00

The letter on their own website: http://urbanhomestead.org/jour...

Guest

Carlie -- they posted the letters they sent out on their own website. It's right there. Go back a few blog posts, and you'll see it.

Kate@livingthefrugallife

Carlie, it's pretty clear -based on what they posted on their own website - that they sent out, or had sent out on their behalf, letters which asserted legal rights to the terms Urban Homestead and Urban Homesteading. It's clear from other sources that they asserted these same rights to Facebook, which then took action to shut down pages belonging to other urban homesteaders. It's also clear from other sources that a public library received a similar letter. It's completely immaterial whether or not those letters contained the words "cease and desist" or "stop or pay." The fact is that the Dervaes family is acting exactly like the corporations they claim to oppose, in privatizing part of the commons, and then taking action to protect their newly awarded legal rights by going after other people who have every moral right to use the terms. If it's a hoax, then the Dervaes family should just come out and say that the letters they posted on their own site were fakes, that they never asserted any rights to Facebook, and that they will never try to assert any rights over these terms, other than in the case of evil corporations. Let them disavow those things, and then maybe they'll get a hearing among the community they've alienated.

It's pretty clear to me that the Dervaeses are seizing on specific phrases that they can truthfully claim not to have used, while ignoring the larger issue. They also whine that no one verified with them what had actually happened, and yet they systematically shut down all avenues of communication. I posted a polite message about this on their Freedom Gardens website which was never answered. The site has been shut down for "database upgrades" for two days now. People did ask, the Dervaeses just didn't listen or answer. Now they cling to the claim that only a few people are upset about what they've done. That might have been arguable in the first 12 hours. It's a mighty big stretch at this point.

My Edible Yard Urban Homestead

Carlie - You are right that they didn't send out "stop or pay up" letters, but they clearly sent out Cease and Desist letters - they didn't use the words "cease and desist" but a Cease and Desist letter doesn't have to use the exact verbiage. What they did send out was a letter telling people to stop using the term "urban homesteading" unless they spelled it like this - URBAN HOMESTEADING(R) with text close by saying that the trademark is owned by the Dervaes Institute. They gave suggestions for alternative text and they mentioned that they usually don't have to use legal maneuvers to solve the problem. I'm paraphrasing, but it clearly is a Cease and Desist letter.

My Edible Yard Urban Homestead

Also, you might find this article from the Pasadena Weekly interesting: http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/... in which the family's representative turns down an interview in 2009 because another urban homesteading family is being interviewed at the same time saying that "they [the Dervaes family] are the original urban homesteaders." Hmmmm. Really?

Growandresist

I am loving the community & collective outrage about this clearly ridiculous 'land grab' the Devraes have brought upon themselves. http://growandresist.com/2011/...