Ciscoblog.com…The Rest of the Story.
Wow – I had no idea the amount of ruckus I would cause with my most recent post. Thanks to everyone for all the kind words and support! I thought I would take a moment to respond to many of the questions and thoughts that have been thrown on the table.
First off, Cisco is fully in the clear legally to do what they’re doing. I’ve done a little research myself and even spoken with a couple trademark lawyers on this. If you’re interested, here’s one case that’s been referenced many times.
Despite finding this out, I was still really bugged about this move…especially with the hundreds (if not thousands) of other domains that use Cisco in their name. That is…until Cisco pointed out to me violating their trademark policy also violates their certification NDA agreement…What?!? Yep, it’s true…buried there in the certification agreement you take every time you take a certification exam is essentially the statement, “I will not violate Cisco’s trademark.” (who knew?).
Uhhh…”Did I say box of t-shirts? I really meant I’d LOVE to give my domain to you! Could I get you a cup of water while you wait?”
So, that finding put this whole thing in perspective for me. The cost of fighting it far outweighed the benefits. Interestingly enough, I’ve been contacted by people internal to Cisco over this whole thing with an offer to blog for them on the Cisco Learning Network. That might be interesting.
Most likely, I’ll just find another domain name to use and continue on from there. We’ll see.
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