Readers of this blog will be aware that I own the business name “Australian Vaccination Sceptics Network” and also that the Australian Vaccination Network is in need of a new name since the Department of Fair Trading ordered them to adopt a new one.
Rather than adopting a new name they have decided to do the wrong thing and use my business name as their own.
As of Friday, March 7th, the Australian Vaccination Network, Inc. will now officially be known as the Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network, Inc. We will still have the same domain address (www.avn.org.au) and will still go by the acronym “AVN”.
I already own the business name they want to adopt.
My business registration.
Within a matter of hours, Dr Rachel Dunlop, Mr John Cunningham, Mr Dan Buzzard (against whom our former President, Meryl Dorey, held an interim Apprehended Violence Order [AVO] for 10 months) and Ms Tracey McDermott had registered the following names:
- Australian Vaccination Sceptics Network (ABN 33 627 009 978)
- Australian Vaccination Skeptics (ABN 82 084 251 657)
- Vaccination Sceptics Network of Australia (ABN 26 113 403 635)
- Vaccination Sceptics Australia (ABN 12 806 631 921)
-Australian Vaccination Network, Newsletter 10th March 2014
So the AVN readily acknowledges that the name is already in use, but continues to use it anyway. The fallout from this will be even more painful for the AVN than they could imagine. After all when was the last time dishonesty worked in their favor?
Looks like your lawyer will have a field day with them…
You guys are so awesome. That is all. Awesome.
Their excuse will be that they're spelling sceptic differently.
Hi,
Were the business names registered to pre-empt its use by the AVN? Or are they legitimately being used for something?
My god, I'm sorry but are you lot on both sides for real? You all act like a bunch of 2 year olds (I consider myself an expert, I've had 6 of them). Little do you realise that the behaviours of both parties actually make people want to steer clear of your websites altogether. All the bitch fighting and name calling and 'one ups' make you all look very very small…
Does not matter Alex.
A business name registered can be and should reflect an entity (private name) or an entities type of business to lay claim to that name. This is suggested, but enforcement against the business name would have to prove prior ownership of that name, the AVN do not have, or infringement on copyright or reasonable expectation that the name misleads or misleads on copyright or business name recog or branding. As Dan's registered name correctly describes the business, that of Skepticism, not Denialism, like the former AVN, and he has registered it before the AVN, they would be hard pressed to make a case against his registration. Their registration of the web site with Skeptic in the name is misleading and infringes upon Dan's business name and brand recognition.
Dan's lawyers could and should have fun with this one!
Hey, normal. This may seem somewhat childish to you, but this is actually about saving lives. If the AVSN wanted to be 9/11 deniers ( some of them are ), or chemtrail believers ( some of them are ), no one would care. But this is about keeping communities disease free. These diseases can kill people. The AVSN have cheated and lied and manipulated people, and this is risking actual lives. If you can't see that is important then I guess you won't see how stopping them is paramount. If people who have been dragged through the courts by this atrocious mob of scaremongers want to stop them using this name, and let's face it these people are not a skeptic/sceptics areshole, then good on them.