long story short - post your suggestions for a new name...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <...@davidco.com>
Date: Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 7:10 AM
Subject: GTD trademarks
To: simon.baird@gmail.com
Hello Simon,
First, thank you for your enthusiasm for David Allen's Getting Things Done® (GTD®) approach. Please know that we are big supporters of the open source environment and we applaud
your efforts in providing a free solution.
We do, however, need to bring a few things to your attention, as we would any developer (open source or revenue model) when using the GTD name:
1. Please do not use "GTD" or "Getting Things Done" in the name of your product. These are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company, which identify our brands and products.
Maybe something like "MonkeyDo" or "MonkeyDone" would work?
2. In using the phrases GTD and Getting Things Done in your product descriptions anywhere, please add the required registered trademark symbols(®) following the phrases GTD® and Getting Things Done®,
particularly in the first and most prominent instances of those phrases on each page.
3. We are thrilled with the response from the developer community to create applications based on David Allen's work. We simply ask you to add the following paragraph to your website to clarify affiliation/endorsement and the source of GTD:
GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. (please link David Allen Company to: http://www.davidco.com) Monkey is not affiliated with or endorsed by the David Allen Company.
I would appreciate if you would send me a quick email when you've made those changes. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
We wish you all the best,
...
From: <...@davidco.com>
Date: Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 7:10 AM
Subject: GTD trademarks
To: simon.baird@gmail.com
Hello Simon,
First, thank you for your enthusiasm for David Allen's Getting Things Done® (GTD®) approach. Please know that we are big supporters of the open source environment and we applaud
your efforts in providing a free solution.
We do, however, need to bring a few things to your attention, as we would any developer (open source or revenue model) when using the GTD name:
1. Please do not use "GTD" or "Getting Things Done" in the name of your product. These are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company, which identify our brands and products.
Maybe something like "MonkeyDo" or "MonkeyDone" would work?
2. In using the phrases GTD and Getting Things Done in your product descriptions anywhere, please add the required registered trademark symbols(®) following the phrases GTD® and Getting Things Done®,
particularly in the first and most prominent instances of those phrases on each page.
3. We are thrilled with the response from the developer community to create applications based on David Allen's work. We simply ask you to add the following paragraph to your website to clarify affiliation/endorsement and the source of GTD:
GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. (please link David Allen Company to: http://www.davidco.com) Monkey is not affiliated with or endorsed by the David Allen Company.
I would appreciate if you would send me a quick email when you've made those changes. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
We wish you all the best,
...
posted by simon at 2:22 PM
The Book
44 Comments:
wow. unbelievable. i, for one, followed your links in the first place, as i had never heard of GTD(trademark) before monkeyGTD.
What about Getting Things Monkey (GTM) or Monkey Things Done?
getting things monkey done?
piratey monkey things getting done?
scumbags. I'm in the same boat as rambly. Hadn't heard of GTD until your MP version.
I guess book sales are down at the moment? Have to start stomping users?
GTDonkey (I laughed at first, now I actually like it. In a way you must be stubborn as a donkey with GTD)
GTWD (a mesh of GTD and TW, honoring both)
Monkey Do
Monkey Bizzle
Plain Monkey
Monkey Get'er Done (Some Redneck lawyer might not let you use that one though)
Get'er Done Monkey-style
MonkeyAllen
Well, I don't care for this sort of copyright abuse, but I gotta hand to the guy, I like "MonkeyDo".
However, previous comment aside, along with whatever the rename comes out to, I would remove the your thoughtful link to Mr. Allen's book from your site.
I thought they were very nice about the fact that they own the copyright. Far cry from DMCA takedown notices and the tactics of the RIAA.
They could have just sent lawyers. The email was a fair tone, and complimentary of the work he had done.
I don't see why the other commenters are complaining.
anyway, keep up the good work, under any name.
* Getting Tiddly Done
* Monkey? Tiddly Done
* Tiddly Monkey
* Monkey time manager
* Monkey scheduler
Bummer! That's the problem when you want to honour where your ideas came from, that took off and became more successful than the original.
When I say "I'll put that in the GTD" I mean it's going in my mGTD. That's not going to change. It's an absolutely fantastic tool supporting a good process.
So here goes:
Monkey Getting Things Doneski
Monkey, Grab That Donkey!
Monkey Dashboard
Monkey Task Dashboard
Gorilla Task Dashboard
MonkeyDone was a pretty good suggestion.
Daz has a better one, I'll let him post it.
monkeyG7D
Implement it in a font that makes the 7 look like a T.
Just have to make something up for the acronynm to represent...
monkey Gettingthingsdone 7 Daysaweek
monkey Get organised in 7 Days
monkey Gaining 7 Days
A very nice letter from the legal team. Nicer than most that I have gotten when something sounds close to something else. And I do like his suggestion best of all: MonkeyDo.
how about "monkey see monkey done"? MonkeyDo is also cute. :)
as for the letter from DavidAllenCo: when you have a a trademark, you have to be able to prove you defended it, or you will lose it
MonkeyGsTD: Monkey Getting sTuff Done.
I like the
MonkeySee MonkeyDone
MonkeyC MonkeyDone?
My copy of Allen's book is reprinted in 2006. I don't see there any mention of GTD or Getting Things Done being a trademark.
Allen @gtdguy later changed his mind and now wants to bully a user community (with several of his readers in it)? I'd be ok with all the TM and links stuff, but the change of name is very painful.
In my opinion, this is clueless, ineffectivelly greedy and unnecessarilly evil.
Never thought I'd see a nice letter concerning trademark issues.
MonkeyDo seems taken up, so's TaskMonkey.
Perhaps I'd go the tiddly way and use something like TiddleMonkey...
I really can't think of a good name this moment, but here's a nice motto:
"Time is Monkey!"
That was a very polite letter and they have every right to defend their trademark. Painful as a name change may be, these complaining comments are seriously ridiculous.
Hey thanks you guys for the great suggestions. For the record I don't think it's an unreasonable request. And it's hard to imagine a politer and more respectful cease and desist letter. Certainly no hard feelings from me towards DA's globalmegacorp.
New name: TaskJedi. That should be fine right? (Kidding...)
@anonymous They do have every right, sure. But I don't think that they are using it wisely annoying their passionate users. The lawyer was indeed polite, but my opinion on David Allen has changed radically; it is now very very unlikely that I will be his customer/reader again.
Some of my ideas:
* GSD (It's simple and Get Stuff Done is a pretty nice synonym)
* MonkeyGSD
* MonkeyDo (It's good but I think there is already something called that)
* Something without the word Monkey? (Monkey's are okay but not really in my top 10 favourite animals)
* NewNextAction (a plus is that I own the domain for that one.. ;). NNA doesn't make a great acronym though.
Actually NewNextAction is well up in my shortlist at this point. Anyone dislike this particularly?
@Ralph "David Ellens Official Getting Things Dun"? ;)
* GSDtw
* twGSD
Hi!
hat about HUE (a little bit like HAL (9000) compares to IBM)
Everybody needs hue in hers/his life and all letters are only one letter away from the original name...
TNX,
Christian
BTW: great work, i am using it heavily
Thank you for the tool once again Simon! I’m also a happy user of MPTW. I think that you put many improvements to the original concept of GTD(big r in the circle) so it will be fair to name the tool MonkeyGTBD – an abbreviation for Monkey Getting Things Better Done.
Another couple: MonkeyTD (things done), or MonkeyTM (things managed).
Nevertheless, I prefer MonkeyGSD (getting stuff done).
BTW, many thanks for the tool, whatever it's called in the future.
Even though they _have_ to enforce their trademark -- wouldn't this be a good opportunity to submit this to Slashdot and ask how to best deal with this kind of situation (and how others could prevent this)? It would surely lead to a large number of suggestions ;)
Regarding the name...how about "Tiddly Wiki|Monkey Organizer"?
MoneyManager
Stuffbasher
PerfectTime
_Dennis
Monkey Done Getting Things?
Monkey Things Getting Done
Monkey Life Organized
Plan > Do > Finished (PDF...Wait that's been done)
Plan > Act > Finished (PAF)
Name holder due to someone else having a copyright on parts of my original name.
RocketJuice Planner (Now Monkey Powered!)
TaskTracker
TiddlyDo
TaskFlow
MonkeyTasks
LEMSICI (Lawyers Emailed Me, So I Changed It)
MonkeySee (MonkeyDo)
Ok, so I assume it's called MonkeyGTD because you base it on MPTW, which used to be Monkey Pirate TiddlyWiki.
Well, just settle the debate once and for all about the pirates vs. ninjas thing and call it TaskNinja.
Or rename it to some obscure symbol and we'll call it "The TiddlyWiki formerly known as MonkeyGTD."
I tried all sorts of other approaches -- including pen & paper -- over the course of nearly three years before settling on MonkeyGTD. I think including "pirate" would help reinforce the current name's connotation that this is a radical departure from other tools.
GetYourStuffDone (aka GetYourSh!tDone)
43 Monkeys (ala 43 folders)
How about Tool Wielding Monkey Book, or Monkey Book for short?
I had never heard of GTD until Lifehacker pointed out MGTD. Sigh.
I *used* to promote the David's book based on the idea that it could be implemented as simply as with a few file folders. And that, unlike the Franklin people he wasn't trying to *sell* anything except his books and ideas.
Those days are definitely over. Frankly it is sad from a lot of points of view. For instance, if I want to find tips on GTD usage (or indeed other GTD style products) it will be harder to do a web search.
It's a sad day.
Wow. Amazing. The change of mind must have come now that they have their own software that they are selling.
Well, I actually like the name a lot better now.
This is the best GTD, oh, sorry, GSD app that I have worked with. :)
I'm going to register every three letter combination possible so that no one can use any name with three letters or more and then see if anyone notices how ridiculous it is that anyone can stake a claim on a three-letter acronym.
My opinion of Dave Allen just went down the toilet. As if anything he wrote in his book was an original idea anyway - what an ass.
I am pretty sure he cant copy right 3 letters. He can copyright a logo with 3 letters, but those 3 letters could stand for anything. Fail
How about mGSD? I have never actually used the acronym GTD, instead favoring GSD. I don't think a monkey would simply get "things" done, a real monkey would GET $H1T DONE!
Or you could go all redneck and call it "Monkey Git Er Done" but that would probably lead to more legal action.
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