What's In A Name? Part the third - Do your homework

Courtesy of Louis Moinet

Ladies and gentleman and children of all ages! Allow me to introduce you to the Space One. Now while I do not claim to know all of the ins and outs of the operations of Louis Moinet, nor the machinations of Jean-Marie Schaller, I suspect that he would probably not be too thrilled to know that the two partners from the brand formerly known as Argon were using the name SpaceOne not only for their watch model (which would be in conflict to a previously established model name - i.e. Louis Moinet's), but are now doubling down and renaming their brand with the same moniker - SpaceOne. 

Now a few curious factoids:

1. Argon which had already raised 1 million bones on Kickstarter got a rather public 2-part spanking by Kickstarter who first froze their project, then completely cancelled it and returned payments to the backers. This was owing to an intellectual property dispute. No further details were provided, but some of us had our theories.

2. The two young men behind Argon claimed that they had no idea what the problem was, but this turned out to be not exactly 100% for realsies. It seems that another brand - Aragon, had already sent cease and desist letters to these young entrepreneurs and showing perhaps a lack of business savvy (or self-preservation), they opted to ignore them. Aragon also filed a complaint with the USPTO back in April of this year. These two actions caught the attention of Kickstarter's legal and compliance folks and that put the kibosh on the project. So, while they were tossing their curls and saying how unfair this all was, the truth is much starker - they were warned, and they opted to ignore the warning. Aragon finally felt that they had no other option but to file suit against Argon. As of this writing no one is talking about the current state of this litigation, but that will be an added hurdle for "the brand formerly known as Argon" to try and get over.

3. In what appears to have been a mad scramble to pull the lunch box out of the toilet bowl, the brand name was changed from Argon to SpaceOne this past weekend. There was even a new URL for it, and as of Saturday or Sunday the site appeared to be live. 

Today - an attempt to visit the site led both of my browsers to give me the following message:

Your connection is not private

Attackers might be trying to steal your information from spaceonewatches.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). Learn more

Now I make no claims to be a wizard of marketing on the level professed by some, but I am pretty sure that this is not good. I am also curious as to why a website that was perfectly functioning only a few days ago now is triggering the "Stranger-Danger" - cootie alert from both Chrome and Safari.

And once again, the whole "Brand formerly known as Argon, now tentatively known as SpaceOne" saga takes another twist. What about the Louis Moinet Space One? It is indeed possible that the boys from Argon/SpaceOne reached out to Jean-Marie Schaller, asked for a favor and he did them a solid by allowing them to use the name SpaceOne.

But then again, maybe they did not. And if that is indeed the case, this is where we go beyond simple misunderstanding to a somewhat tragically comic chain of events. 

So grab your Jiffy Pop and a comfy seat, something tells me there is a bit more in this tale to untwist.

What's In A Name - Part the Second: Lawyer Up!

Before going any further, I want to thank Brendan Cunningham for sharing an article from his excellent site - Horolonomics that provides a very well researched bit of background on the latest chapter in what has rapidly evolved into a true Watch Town "Shit Show".

As I had theorized in my post of exactly one week ago, it seemed that the intellectual property dispute that had thrown a bucket of cold cat pee on the Argon kickstarter project was most likely down to similarity of naming conventions between what some of my colleagues in the Fourth and Fifth Estates identify as the Protagonist (Argon) and the Antagonist (Aragon).

For those of you unfamiliar, the Protagonist is meant to be the "good guy" or "white hat" in the story. The Antagonist is, well, the opposite. But as we all have learned by now, life is not exactly black and white. I would propose that the roles in this little mini-drama have been confused by my colleagues (and many of their readers / listeners / viewers) and I will elaborate on that shortly.

But first, I draw your attention to Brendan Cunningham's article on the dispute which has now become a legal one -

https://www.horolonomics.com/2023/06/argon-trademark-dispute-goes-to-court.html

And this is where I feel that the roles of Antagonist and Protagonist have been incorrectly assigned. Put yourself in the shoes of the Aragon owner. You own a brand, you've put in time and money, you might not be the sexiest beast out there, but you've had successful Kickstarter campaigns. You may not be a household name in Watch Town, but you've pretty much played by the rules. In my book? You are the Protagonist.

Across the great expanse of the Atlantic, a pair of young men are working on a new watch design. They pick a brand name, and for better or worse (and this is giving them the benefit of the doubt), because there was not an EXACT match in names registered in the US (I'm not going to wade into EU or global registrations), they decide to try to register the name as is. Again, we will assume that either they did not do a deep enough dive when they searched the directory to learn that there was an existing brand known as Aaragon, or they simply assumed that it would not be an issue. Again - this is giving them the benefit of the doubt. And it is also an assumption that maybe, just maybe, the ink had not completely dried on an approval of their name registration here in the lower 48. Per Mr. Cunningham's article, the owner/ operator of Aragon initially filed a complaint with the USPTO back in April. This is the organization that determines eligibility to register a trademark or trade name in the US.  But wait, it goes deeper. In addition to this, Aragon's lawyers sent not one, but two cease and desist letters to Argon's owner/s. According to the suit that was filed (more on that in a moment) Aragon's lawyers got back crickets. And yes, that is a "pun intended" which we will also get to in a moment. With no response to what at that point would be 4 warnings: Complaint to the USPTO, complaint to Kickstarter, and not one, but two cease and desist letters sent from genuine lawyers, the current understanding out there is that Argon opted to not reply. 

And so this past Tuesday - June 27, Aragon filed suit against the (on paper) owner of the nascent Argon - Theo Auffret. Curious to relate, on pretty much all of their promotional material, written communication, interviews, Kickstarter and even their website, Mr. Auffret and Mr. Laidet have shared equal billing. Mr. Laidet is by many accounts one of the owners of Nivada Grenchen, as well as Excelsior Park, as well as the owner of a white label assembler / contractor. Also worth noting is that Mr. Laidet has gone on record as referring to himself as the CEO of Vulcain during an interview with Wei Koh of Revolution - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR6eKmxacgg&t=173s

Needless to say, it's all a bit confusing. 

Courtesy of NBC

But back to the matter at hand. Despite two communications going to Argon HQ in Paris, no response came. Nor, as far as anyone knows, did Argon make any effort at mediating a solution with Aragon. And owing to this, I would place their role as the Antagonist.

And then this most recent twist in the tail - communication went out to some of their Kickstarter backers that Argon would now be known as SpaceOne. Long story too late to make short, Kickstarter completely shut down the initial project and refunded all of the backers. I was forwarded what I assume as an official "Brand formerly known as Argon" communication sent out to some of their backers which was forwarded on to me by a few different readers. Apparently Argon will now try to fund their launch via direct backing (i.e. pre-order through their website). And the brand will now be known as SpaceOne. Let's just hope that name hasn't already been registered somewhere else...

And this raises even more questions, and reinforces my feelings that if there is a bad actor here, it is Argon: 

1. Did they wait for final confirmation that they had indeed secured the name before launching their Kickstarter campaign.

2. If they did, why are they changing the name now?

3. Did they make any real or sincere effort to reach out to the owner of Aragon and try to resolve the dispute?

As I said the first go round, the real victims here are the Kickstarter backers. Whether or not Aragon is willing to accept a sincere apology and settle the dispute is up to them. And lastly? Let's hope the guys at Argon have, or at least will learn from the experience. The final (as of now) outcome could have been avoided at several points along the way.

What's In A Name?

And when Kickstarter's revolving door of compliance hits your ass on the way out.

Okay, confession time - I have NEVER participated in a Kickstarter project apart from two times that I donated money to help a friend make their goal. Particularly so in a watch project. I still have fairly vivid memories of when the first Kloker's Kickstarter dragged on and on. Several supporters getting their watches nearly a year after the project ended, and frankly a not so warm and fuzzy outcome as many of the watch cases were defective (plastic cases with the metal-like coating peeling away).

Ultimately the company failed, although their Kickstarter launch absolutely made their first few years much more successful fiscally, and probably helped keep them alive after the initial investment from larger backers had been burned through.

But what happens when confidence (perhaps inflated) gets confronted with reality? And that brings us to today's topic - Argon. Without getting into too many particulars about the two partners behind the nascent brand, the sudden removal of Argon from Kickstarter does serve as a cautionary tale for every other would-be watch entrepreneur about the importance of dotting all "i"s and crossing all "t"s. After raising over one million George Washington Dollars for their Spaceone watch, the virtual funding rug was unceremoniously yanked out from under Argon's feet. 

Why?

Long story somewhat shortened:

Although some details are as yet to be fully fleshed out, there is an intellectual property dispute. For those of you unfamiliar - you can absolutely send in the paperwork to register a name. But with that said, that is only the first step. There is a lengthy process that (at least in the US) takes months, not weeks. Here in the lower 48, your trade mark registration can be denied for any number of reasons by the feds in DC. 

Argon or Aragon?

And then this fun factoid, a brand known as Aragon appears to have planted their flag first in Watch Town. Curious to relate? They also had a successful Kickstarter back in...

2018!

And needless to say, one thing might have absolutely nothing to do with the other.

So whether this intellectual property dispute is merely at the Kickstarter level, or if it is deeper problem is something that we will have to do a "wait and see" on.

What is known is that the two young men behind Argon have informed backers that Kickstarter has halted their project and is holding onto the funds. They also state that they have retained legal representation here in the US of A. 

And here is where, unfortunately, the folks who put up their money to back the project are now presented with the fuzzy end of the lollipop. 

It is a fun watch design, and it clearly had a lot of support from individuals wanting to have one. 

Is there a solution? Of course there is, but it will require something beyond simply retaining legal representation. Mediation would be advisable, as it creates an opportunity to resolve the dispute more elegantly. 

So we shall wait, and we shall see... maybe.