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Lavalife, self-proclaimed “America’s #1 Hookup Site”, has joined the online dating magazine trend, launching LavalifeMagazine. Ho-hum I thought, another waste of resources better focused on getting new subscribers. Upon closer review, it seems their profile guru is called Profile Doctor, the name of the profile writing company I founded almost four years ago. To boot, it appears as though the profile section is a copy of a magazine article from a few years ago, Men’s Health or Journal I believe.
While not legally protected via trademark law, I have to give Lavalife a failing grade when it comes to originality.
Cecil Chandless in the Lavalife legal department told me:
Lavalife has verified both the US and Canadian trademark registers and have found neither a registration nor an application for registration on the words “Profile Doctor�. For this reason and for other reasons, we do not believe we are infringing any trademark rights through our use of these words on a Canadian based site.
Legal or not, that sucks. Feels like a kick to the stomach. I’m not happy that America’s #1 copycat is using a brand I spent countless hours and lots of money establishing. Lavalife should have come up with a more original name.
Technorati Tags: profile+writing, profiledoctor, trademark
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Btw – good job in getting the blog back up. I was getting worried that something happened to you.
Hosted at the trendy Drake Hotel, the atmosphere was excellent, the crowd stylish and the food was delicious.
It’s unfortunate that there’s a naming conflict over “Profile Doctor”, but at least it doesn’t appear to be a major part of their magazine (or recurring for that matter).