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     A California-based company, Entrepreneur Media, Inc., is attempting to control the use of a dictionary word in its generic sense though harassing legal threats and intimidating lawsuits. Entrepreneurs.com previously has been the target of such harassment from Entrepreneur Media. Although Entrepreneur Media dropped its suit when we demonstrated that we had the financial resources to resist a groundless legal attack, others have not been so fortunate. We have recently learned of their unfortunate stories and feel compelled to help other entrepreneurs in any way we can.

BACKGROUND:

      According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "entrepreneur" has been an active part of the English language since 1828. In 1852, the OED notes the first use of entrepreneur with the meaning it retains today -- "one who undertakes an enterprise; one who owns and manages a business; a person who takes the risk of profit or loss."

      American history is rich with tales of entrepreneurs, men and women whose dreams, hard work and perseverance have given us numerous technological marvels and a thriving, diverse economy.

TODAY:

      We at Entrepreneurs.com hold the passionate belief that entrepreneurs have made immeasurable contributions to the success of this nation and countries around the world. This Web site was created in that spirit as a way of supporting, saluting, assisting and inspiring small businesses, inventors and dreamers.

      Unfortunately, some in the entrepreneurial community don't appear to us to be as supportive of entrepreneurship, competition and free trade.

      Over the past several years, Entrepreneur Media, Inc., the Southern California publisher of a publication titled Entrepreneur Magazine, has zealously and aggressively attempted to stifle competition in the entrepreneurial community by attempting to control the use of the word "entrepreneur" through intimidation and legal action.

     In 1999, for example, the company launched an unsuccessful legal attack to seize possession of the "entrepreneurs.com" domain name. Given Entrepreneur Media's attempt to wrest the domain away from WebMagic, perhaps it's not surprising that the company has taken similarly aggressive actions against several other entrepreneurs and small businesses, including EntrepreneurPR, EntrepreneurNet, Entrepreneur.com, Asian Entrepreneur and Young Entrepreneur.

     Almost as interesting is who Entrepreneur Media hasn't pursued. We have no knowledge, for example, of it ever going after Ernst & Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards program or CNN's "Entrepreneurs Only" television program.

THE 'MARKS':

      Apparently unaware (or unconcerned) of the irony of being a large, financially powerful corporation persecuting small businesses and lone entrepreneurs, Entrepreneur Media has pursued a strategy that (in our opinion) goes against the public interest in attempting to control the use of a word that has existed in the English language for at least 172 years, a word that by its very definition describes a broad range of activities pertaining to business and labor.

      We support the right of Entrepreneur Media to conduct its business. We do not, however, support the aggressive, ham-fisted tactic of attempting to control through costly litigation the legitimate use of what is without dispute a common dictionary word. The idea that a single company should possess the legal authority to dictate use of a generic word across a wide spectrum of varying usage is something disturbingly close to George Orwell's novel "1984."

      Fortunately the court system does not agree with Orwell. Entrepreneur Media frequently uses the word "entrepreneur" in a sense that is generic. Its efforts to assert trademark rights against other "entrepreneurs" are identical to the efforts that prompted the court in the "cds.com" case to say, "The mark itself now denotes a term in common usage, and is not entitled to protection as a strong mark," and furthermore, "Defendants now seek to expand the scope of this mark's protection to preclude the use of 'CDS' in reference to compact disk products and services, and this renders the mark invalid as being generic." 47U.S.P.Q.2d at 1759. (CDS Networks, one of 12 companies holding a U.S. trademark registration for "CDS," complained to Network Solutions to get the domain name "cds.com" put on hold. The domain-name holder, an online compact disc store, sued, and won.)

      We at Entrepreneurs.com believe that this destructive campaign against the entrepreneurial community must stop. To that end, we have posted these pages in order to help as many entrepreneurs as possible. We provide these pages for the benefit of all entrepreneurs. We even offer free, one-on-one assistance in select cases -- without commenting on the merit of the individual case -- to any business or individual similarly persecuted by Entrepreneur Media. And we encourage anyone interested to visit the links above for further information.

CALL TO ARMS:

     We are trying to track each of Entrepreneur Media's targets. If you are aware of any not listed here, or can provide additional information of value, please contact us as soon as possible.