A long-fought battle over the right to use the term “urban homesteading” is now over. Since 2009, the term has been trademarked and controlled by the Dervaes Institute. In 2011, the Dervaes Institute sent letters to authors, bloggers, and organizations, asking them to stop using the terms, which caused a huge backlash in the urban homesteading community.
Since then, Denver Urban Homesteading, a local farmer’s market, has been fighting a legal battle to get the trademark cancelled.
Denver Urban Homesteading was unable to afford a trademark lawyer so owner James Bertini, a retired general practice attorney represented the market himself. He was motivated to cancel the trademark not only to get back the farmers’ Facebook page but also as a matter of public interest since other Facebook pages had been disabled. Bertini said that he prevailed over five law firms and nearly a dozen intellectual property litigation attorneys that participated on behalf of the Dervaes Institute in those legal battles. “No small business should have to go through five years of litigation to cancel a trademark that shouldn’t exist,” Bertini said. “A small business cannot afford this burden.” Indeed, according to Bertini, his didn’t, and the farmers’ market was closed this year due to the extensive time required for litigation and travel to California for court-required meetings.
After a nearly five year struggle, a judge in California gave a pre-trial ruling cancelling the trademark. The judge found that “urban homesteading” is a generic term and that Dervaes Institute uses it as a generic term, rather than the name of their organization, which means the term can’t be trademarked.
The Court concludes, based on the undisputed facts, that the term “urban homesteading” answers the question “What are you?” rather than “Who are you?”.
Click here to read the court’s full decision.
I think this is a win for urban homesteaders everywhere. We should be free to blog and write about what we do, without having to tiptoe around legal issues. For those homesteading in the city, “urban homesteading” is the perfect term for what they’re doing. They shouldn’t have to avoid it just because one group wants to keep the term for themselves.
What do you think about this ruling? Are you glad urban homesteading is no longer trademarked or was this a non-issue? Let us know in the comments.
Read more about Urban Homesteading, you’ll love these vertical garden tips.
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