[Sly Fox]

Forgive my ignorance for not being familiar with this site. But the international threats had me intrigued:

Problematic Praize
WSLS NewsChannel 10
Apr 6, 2006

Joshua Holmes admits he's a broke college student.

His laptop is missing keys left and right.

It's the very same laptop the Liberty University student used to create mypraize.com, a Christian alternative to myspace.com.

You might say the laptop put him into debt.

Holmes: "I came in with almost $6,000 of credit card last month just on my own from the site."

Now, it has delivered a message that he might soon have more.

Holmes: "I was completely shocked he emailed me."

"He" is Robbie Davidson, CEO and President of the Canadian-based Praize Incorporated and praize.com.

The email is a "cease and desist" letter.

Holmes: "He said that I was infringing upon the trademark of Praize Incorporated and if I didn't sign over my domain name, he was going to sue me."

But there's little to prove the company did in fact trademark the word "praize."

A check on the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, which registers trademarks, came up empty-handed.

And a search on the United States Patent and Trademark office shows the same.

If indeed "praize" isn't trademarked, the ball may be in Joshua's court, if he goes to court.

Two trademark attorneys tell Newschannel 10, if there's no trademark, Praize Incorporated will have to prove that Joshua's website is taking their clients."

But you can simply turn to Google to see Joshua isn't the only one out there capitalizing on the word "praize."

Holmes: "To me, it seems like now that we're getting so big, they want to take our domain name to steal our traffic."

But what bothers him most....

Holmes: "From a Christian standpoint, I don't particularly believe in lawsuits. I don't think it's conducive to sue another Christian. I think there are much better ways to solve an issue."

Newschannel 10 did get a call back from Robbie Davidson with Praize Incorporated.

He says, "we are out to protect the company's name and Christian or not, there are laws in place and we will fight to do so."

Robbie admits his email was a scare tactic but says he is open to talking to Joshua about where to go from here.

http://www.wsls.com/servlet/Satellite?p ... !localnews

[PAmedic]

sounds like something our new LU School of Law can take on. With relish.

I got my money on our local boy Josh.

friggin Canadians.

[A.G.]

friggin Canadians

Not an LU hockey fan, no doubt!

[Hold My Own]

I'm pretty sure JFjr is going to hear about this

[Flamesfanva]

The Praize.com Statement of Faith.

Statement of Faith
Core values and facts we believe in:
# We believe in one eternal, triune God.
# We believe in God, the Father who created the heavens and the earth.
# We believe that God came to earth in the person Jesus Christ. We believe in His virgin birth,
sinless life, death and resurrection.
# We believe that Christ is in heaven with God and will return to judge all people.
# We believe that the Holy Spirit still works on the earth in the hearts of believers,
helping us to live according to God's word.
# We believe the Bible is the inspired and true word of God.
# We believe that people are basically sinful and in need of God's salvation.
# We believe that salvation comes from faith in Jesus Christ and through God's grace.
# We believe that true believers will receive eternal life through God.
# We believe in the universal church and the unity of believers in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Looks like they left off "We will sue anyone including Christians who get in our way."

[Sly Fox]

This serves the Canucks little good but it did generate some pub for the LU guy starting this site. I checked it out and he already has thousands of registered members.

[HolmesSPH]

Hey everone!! This is Joshua Holmes the MyPraize guy!

Just wanted to really fill in whats going on here....
The problem "he" claims is that we are using the term "MyPraize" and he has a portion of his web site called "My Praize" which is like "my Yahoo"... Unfortunately for him he cannot register a trademark for a SUB Domain, ONLY Top Level Domains... Unfortunate FOR ME I cannot afford a lawsuit.. It's a sad truth, I was hoping that SOMEONE would stepup on my side and back me legally, but it hasn't happened.

However, I am confident that if I got a compitent trademark lawyer he could easily win the case, however I would have no money to pay him with.. Only nation media exposure thats about it.

[PAmedic]

SOMEONE over at LU law has GOTTA pick this one up pro-bono for the local guy- C'MON!

[Sly Fox]

Hang in there, Joshua. Surely this cat up in Canada is willing to negotiate an acceptible solution that will benefit both parties outside of the legal system. It seems as though there should be some middle ground.

Any corporate lawyers willing to help a brother out?