Two years ago I started a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) consulting business named "GISmatters". When I set things up in June of 2004, I did exhaustive research to make sure I wasn't in conflict with anything out there - at the time, all variations of "gis.*matter.*", and even other GIS-related text ending in "matters" - were non-existent. It was just brought to my attention that for about a year now, a high-profile employee of ESRI, the dominant GIS software producer, has been running a blog called "GIS Matters", with a web address of gismatters.blogspot.com. This guy (David Maguire), has authored some books on GIS and is fairly widely known. Not looking for legal advice from you all - not even sure I could or would want to pursue this as a legal matter - but wondering what advice any of you might have (perhaps from personal experience) on whether and how to communicate with the blogger, what to ask for, etc. It's unfortunate that I didn't discover it sooner - he's not likely to be eager to simply abandon the identity after a year of blogging. And for all I know I shouldn't even expect him to... I'm not even sure this presents a real problem for me... who knows, maybe it's an opportunity? I'm hoping that some feedback might help me to clarify what steps to take from here, if any, to address what feels like a potentially confusing and/or damaging incursion into my business identity. Thanks in advance, Chris -- Chris Duncan, Ph.D. President GISmatters duncan at GISmatters.com http://www.gismatters.com/ 227 E Pleasant St Amherst, MA 01002 Tel: 413-549-2052 Fax: 508-637-2557