This Thrillionaire Is Not One Of Those Thrillionaires
by Ruth Ann Harnisch on 10/26/09 at 10:08 pm
My husband still likes to talk about the day Oprah Winfrey said hello to me.
Barbara Mandrell, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, was on Oprah’s television show to talk about her autobiography. In the book, Barbara quotes an OpEd piece I wrote for the Nashville Banner. Before Oprah became, you know, Oprah, she was just another member of the Channel 5 Eyewitness News Team at the CBS affiliate in Nashville. So it was only natural for Oprah to look into the camera, wave, and say, “Hi, Ruthie” to her former colleague.
As you might imagine, the phone started ringing. You can imagine. “Oprah said hello to you!”
Well, for a minute today, I thought Oprah must have given me another shout-out, because my phone and email have been crazy. “Did you see this?” “Is this you?”
No, it wasn’t Oprah. It was an announcement from a group of entrepreneurs called The Thrillionaires. And no, I’m not a part of that group. Nobody from the group has ever contacted me.
Practically everyone in my circle knows I’ve been using the word “Thrillionaire” to describe myself for years. I have a website at http://thrillionaires.org, and I liked the word so much I even trademarked it. I paid a professional graphic design firm to create a Thrillionaires logo, stationery, business cards, little coin boxes, all to promote the notion that anyone who knows what it feels like to experience the thrill of giving is a “Thrillionaire.”
I talked about “my” word with Anu Garg of A Word A Day fame, and asked how to get into dictionaries. “People have to use it,” he said.
And that’s where The New York Times came in. Back in the days when rich people felt rich and happily played for the chance to be the most conspicuous consumers, some very wealthy people were willing to spend millions on rare experiences that produce major adrenaline. You know, the guy who’ll spend $20 million to buy a ticket to the Space Station, that sort of thing. The Times dubbed them “Thrillionaires,” people who spent millions for thrills.
Well, that’s not “my” Thrillionaire. By my definition, you get your thrill from doing something for someone else, whether it’s giving a kidney or a kind word, a few pennies or a few hours of your volunteer time. Anyone, not just the rich, can experience the thrill of giving. Anyone can be a Thrillionaire. I’d been saying so, publicly, for quite some time before those thrill-buying millionaires stepped right up and became the more widely-known definition of Thrillionaire overnight.
I thought about this, and wrote a thoughtful letter to The New York Times’ legal department, citing my trademark, my activities using the word, and so forth, and asking politely that this receive some acknowledgment from The Times, as a simple Google search would have turned up my coinage of Thrillionaire…it was the only one out there at the time.
The Times wrote back a very few words, the essence of which could be summed up as “Tough.”
I thought about the expensive attorneys and the legal work that had already cost many thousands of dollars to secure my rights to that word I thought was “mine.”
And then I remembered, sadly, that if you want to defend these things that you can spend all your time and all your money doing just that, and you might not win, and you might win the case but lose in the battle of public opinion, or lose your business, or lose all your resources that would enable you to do something else.
That’s why I ignored when a book came out using “Thrillionaires,” knowing this was not a fight I wanted to pay for, because language is a living thing and one cannot truly “own” a word, can one?
So I just let it go, and recognized that I couldn’t control it. It’s an arrangement of letters, and people can and will use the word, and even though I think I made it up and put it out there, I can’t stop others from defining it in their way, and even trying to make money using it.
While I’ve been writing this I received two more “Do you know about this?” emails from associates. Yes, I know about this.
Do you know about THIS? http://thrillionaires.org
13 Comments
Elizabeth
Oct 26th, 2009
Dear Ruth Ann,
Thank you! You are exquisite and I love you! Let the rest of the world decipher that!
Eliza
Anastasia Ashman
Oct 27th, 2009
Thanks for this Ruth.Re. brandjacking (whether intentional or not)… beyond legal battles, all we can do is do what it is we do, better and in a more deeply-felt fashion, and aim to demonstrate even more widely how and why this term applies best to our vision, and why others would want to adopt it. There are plenty of definitions for the same word in the dictionary — some corruptions and riffs, some entering the language from vastly different directions. There *is* room for them all. But it would be nice if your definition of thrillionaire is at the top of the list.I bookmarked thrillionaires.org on delicious today. We all need to do more of that: share what we know.
Nassim Assefi
Oct 27th, 2009
I agree with Anastasia. BTW, I love your definition of thrillionaire and have been using it and citing your website whenever I can.
Douglas Newby
Oct 27th, 2009
Your word, your story, your explanation is a thrill.
Marsha Harrell Crownover
Oct 27th, 2009
You know this really gripes me. Do you know when this "other' group The Thrillionaires began? I would be curious to know if they know about you..
Kelly Magill
Oct 28th, 2009
What's the point of a trademark? I prefer your definition Ruth Ann
Kelly Bokor Magill
Oct 28th, 2009
What's the point of a trademark? I prefer your definition Ruth Ann
Dolly Garlo
Oct 28th, 2009
Ruth Ann,
Love this article. It was brought to my attention after a coaching program module today on personal development of legacy projects – the range of what they can look like (and how they might differ from traditional notions of estate planning), and how they may be operational during life time and include things that may need intellectual property protection — depending on what the project entails. We talked about the fact that protection and pursuing that protection as allowed by law may be worth it and needed, and may simply be a headache.
I love your Thrillionaires work, too – it has been dear to my heart as an example of legacy projects, as I put my whole Creating Legacy program together. And never once did it occur to me (until this article today) that the word you’ve used might refer to adrenaline filled activities!
Endorphin filled is more like it!!
Best to you and all the “real” Thrillionaires. Good for us all, for your definition.
Cheers, Dolly
Laura Suzanne Scott
Oct 29th, 2009
Wow, this whole thing is facinating and sad. I would have expected more from the Times too. Like others, I have and will continue to share your idea of being a Thrillionaire with others! xoxo Laura
LizToole
Nov 15th, 2009
Ruth, thanks to you we in Nova Scotia know the real meaning of “Thrillionaire”! I agree that some battles are not worth fighting.
Hugs
PMLaw
Mar 30th, 2010
Aha! Now it makes sense…
Jonathan
Jul 6th, 2010
Let me explain what the law is, so you get a better understanding.
A person can trademark anything. Labbatt’s has trademarked the word Blue. However, they don’t OWN that word. The trademark laws state this: You can trademark a business using one word but the trademark is the actual activity of the word. Therefore, in the above example, the Word Blue Beer is trademarked and they are entitled to request or sue anyone using the word Blue for their beer. So, if you are looking to trademark a beer name, best not to call it Blue.
Another example. McDonald’s owns the trademarked name McDonald’s, but under the trademark laws, they are known as McDonald’s Restaurants. The law also states that regardless of incidence, a person may use their last name, but the activity is what matters. As an example, perfect example. McDonald’s Restaurants and MacDonald cigarettes. Same, very similar name, but different activity.
It was less than 10 years ago where WWF (World Wildlife Fund) opened a lawsuit against WWF (World Wrestling Federation). The courts ruled in favor of the the Wildlife Fund, since they were established before the wrestling company. Oh, Vince McMahon had a riot with that. Although the billionaire lost the lawsuit, he became even richer with the slogan “Get the F out”.
But here is the problem that was insighted… Fans of the wildlife organization, would go online and type in WWF.com and would find Vince McMahon wrestling’s website instead. Since both companies has an agreement years ago that they could both use the initials WWF could co-exist in peace, the the problem was online.
As I read this, nice blog, I ended up checking out http://www.thrillionaires.com and thethrillionaires.com well, if a fight would go in court, the outcome would probably get thrown out, why?
Two different names, two different domains. Same root name perhaps. As another example… The company Ford has a car named the Fusion, so does the company Polaris which, the snowmobile Fusion model came out before the car, years ago as a 45th anniversary high powered snowmobile. One is a car company, the other is a snowmobile company.
For example, if a company named Fusion, lets say they are a lawnmower company who’s been in business for 40 years and would start getting emails saying: “Hey, I was looking for a Ford Fusion” chances are the long time company would win in a court of law against the car manufacturor, especially if the Ford Fusion website was named http://www.fusion.us
I would see a lawsuit possible if someone has a similar website. In this case, The Thrillionares and Thrillionares both have different domains and activities. Ruth’s website is all about having the Thrill of giving and feeling like a million, while the other one is about paying millions for thrills and gives success coaching to its customers (which to me sounds like a scam). This isn’t a trademark infrigement. Perhaps a lawsuit would cost a thrillion…
Basically, anyone can use the word as long as they don’t copy your business model, business logo and business activities.
If I can suggest something, use the ™ symbol on your logo. This would mean that you have use an un-registered trademark name. It doesn’t indemnify you or you business, but this gives your logo and your moto (Know the thrill of giving) an implied trademark agreement.
To bad you abandoned your registration, I’d have stuck my ground… Apparently the book The Thrillionaire is a registered trade mark and the website appears nothing more than a scam. In the USA, The Thrillionaire, The Thrillionaires or Thrillionaires are not currently registered trademarks. Although it might be registered in Australia, it isn’t necessarily registered in other countries…
Check it out here
http://www.uspto.gov/
If you do get it registered internationally, which would cost a lot of money to do, then you would have the rights to stop the sales of his book in jurisdictions in which it hasn’t been registered because it would be “reasonable ground” because he would be operating business using a name that is “too similar” to a registered name.
However, who’s to fight a damn millionaire…
Wish you all the best
Ruth Ann Harnisch
Jul 6th, 2010
You’re right, of course, and my $800/hr trademark attorney explained it all to me very expensively at the time.
I chose not to spend the money, not to fight, not to do anything except speak my truth from my not-for-profit heart and ask the Universe to protect my INTENTION, not my trademark.
I am pleased to note that their so-called movement appears to have found the audience it so richly deserves: themselves.
And about the “millionaire” crack, I resemble that remark.
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