Have you ever received a cease and desist email from a payment processor?

[MichaelCorfman]

Over the years a number of webmasters have reported receiving cease and desist email notices from payment processors, particularly from MoneyGram. Here are some old threads going back over a decade referencing such email messages:

"Moneygram lawyers" from March 2004
"Legal Notice from Moneygram" from March 2004
"Letter from MoneyGram" from February 2005
"MoneyGram Name/Logo Use" from July 2006
"Attack of Moneygram" from June 2009

Although there are no recent threads I could find on the topic, I know for a fact that MoneyGram continues to send cease and desist notices to affiliates. I received such a notice myself earlier this month, and had also received one a couple years ago.

I can say that I responded to both requests I received, explaining why I believed our use of their trademark was fair use allowed under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (since we operate subject to U.S. laws), that our content was not misleading or deceptive, and that we did not in any way hold ourselves out as having any business relationship with MoneyGram or offer payment processing services using MoneyGram. In my reply I also informed them that we had carefully reviewed the list of operators we understood accepted payment through MoneyGram, and that we would promptly correct any errors or omissions in the list of sites accepting MoneyGram if they observed any instances where the data we reported was factually incorrect.

So, my question for this week is have you ever received a cease and desist notice asking that you remove a reference to a trademark, such as one to MoneyGram? And if you have received such a notice, what action did you take? Did you do as asked, did you ignore the request, or did you take some other action. I'm sure I'm not the only affiliate site operator that has refused to comply with such a request on the grounds that such a demand is without legal merit. But I also know that many affiliates receiving such requests do choose to comply with them.

Michael

[allfreechips]

American Express sent me a physical mail I bemlieve, was a few years ago but I dont think it was an email, they demanded I do not use their image or name on my site. I removed the Image and re named it American -E and never heard back

[tzar]

Two years ago from WU. Only 4-5 days after publishing one casino review. Complied immediately and never used their name again.

[Virtual Marketing]

Should anyone need another reason to start working with the blockchain ?

[wonderpunter]

Had one from moneygram about using their logo and mentioning their name related to a sportsbook,

[sweetbet]

I received an email from moneygram many years ago.

[TravG]

It has been some time since I received anything from Money Gram (and also Western Union) but I did comply with removing their logo and changed the wording from "Money Gram" to cash transfers. I really did not want to since I received some traffic for Money Gram search terms but at the time just didnt want to "make waves" and wanted stay under the radar as much as possible. I also wasnt sure about the legality of using their logo.

I do agree with your thinking above that you are not breaking any laws, and operators do in fact accept Money Gram payments so your information in not misleading. In hind sight I probably should have kept my info as it was.

[allfreechips]

Legally writing a review about a product does not take their permission, but fighting them in court to tell them that is over my head

[sweetbet]

When I google the words casino moneygram I see 413,000 results, so I'm guessing that their cease and desist emails are not having much of an impact.

[universal4]

I know of many situations regarding the use of the term PayPal and gambling, and they go ahead and close accounts and lock funds in addition to the "Cease and Desist" letters and that can get really messy for folks.

In one particular case, the whois was performed on the domain in question, it was cross referenced with whois information on other domains, and the PP account that was closed used an email address on a domain that used the same whois information.

And no, I do not think this is a case for using any blockchain technology, but it should make affiliates more aware they need to be be more careful in the use of trademarks on their sites. The letters are due to the way affiliates discuss and display trademarks, most often on payment information pages, and whether an affiliate gets paid by bitcoin will most likely NEVER change whether WU or MoneyGram threatens legal action. If you have their logos and trade names on your sites, no matter how you get paid, they still might file.

I am interested to hear how the case turns out Michael, and what kind of response , if any, is received.

Rick
Universal4

[MichaelCorfman]

I am interested to hear how the case turns out Michael, and what kind of response , if any, is received.

After I responded to the cease and desist email from a couple years ago, I never heard another peep. I view the current cease and desist email as a completely different matter, since it did not mention the communication from before, and referenced a different url on the site. I do not expect to see any further follow-up this time either. I believe any competent intellectual property attorney reviewing the response I provided would recognize that I understand my rights in this area well enough, and don't actually violate the law in any way, so that any further time they spent would be time wasted.

Michael

[David_Allegro]

I have never received a cease and desist, but I have had bank accounts closed for receiving funds from a casino. I have learned to be very specific with any form of financial institution before beginning so as to avoid a later cancellation. It is very frustrating as none of my work is gambling related, just marketing.