Seth Kinast’s Blog

This last week has been so wonderful. I’ve gotten all sorts of things accomplished, and I’ve just had a fun, happy few days. Sam has been such a goodness. When I met her through Hannah last semester, it was kind of scary… she just gave me a half-bemused, half-rolleyes look every time she saw me. But this semester, we have ballroom and physics together, so I think she figured out I’m not all that bad. I’ve spent some wonderful evenings with her, just hanging out… makes things seem not-so-lonely, anymore. It’s a completely platonic relationship, yet we’ve grown so close so fast. She’s just so similar to me. Funny, though… when I first was getting to know her, I asked if she were a huggy sort of person. She quickly replied with, “I’m more of a don’t-touch-me sort of person.” Resigned to making friends with another Hannah, I was surprised when she came up to me one day and gave me a huge hug! She accuses me of being magic and transforming non-touchy people into snuggly huggy ones. I plead innocence.

I went in for my psych testing last week, and I go again tomorrow. We are required to have 5 hours of research participation (read: guinea pig) as part of the intro psych course. Looking down the list of available experiments I saw:

• Questionnaires: Self-Image and Leadership
  2 credits. Answer a set of surveys about how you perceive yourself and others.
• Survey: Business Decisions in the Real World
  1.5 credits. Perform tasks and answer questionnaires regarding business decisions.
• Groupwork in Gendered Groups
  1 credit. Work through puzzles and solve problems with groups of your peers.

And on, and on. Booooring stuff, and only worth 1/3 or so of the total credit I needed! But then… I saw it!

• PLAY VIDEO GAMES
  5 credits. Play a video game and develop teamwork and critical thinking.

Hello Dolly! How good can it get! So I signed up (for the LAST available slot!) and off I went to play… Space Fortress. An incredibly complex DOS-based game. Simple at first… move the ship, shoot the fortress, don’t die. But there were SO many rules! “If a spaceship showing one of the three callsigns shown before the game appears, click the right mouse button twice, then shoot it. Otherwise you may shoot it if moving in a clockwise direction, but if you press any mouse button your gun will stop working. Meanwhile if moving at a speed greater than 50 kmps you will lose 7 points per second, otherwise gain 5 points per second. The fortress can be destroyed after VOE reaches 10 but only when receiving two shots fired withing 250-400 ms of each other…” and on for 8 pages. Of rules. Single-spaced.

Way, way worth it though. I was entertained for my 2.5 hours last week, and I figure it’ll be fun this week too. Way better than surveys!

In other news, I got served a letter of cease-and-desist today for using the Windows trademark. I wondered how long it’d take, but I think as long as I took down the domain I was using I can lie low and be safe. Click Read More to see it.

The rest of this week promises to be quite happy. Next week, though… test city. Boo.

Notice of Trademark Infringement and Misuse

By Email (seth@sethkinast.com)
By Express Courier

Without Prejudice

Mr. Seth Kinast
I Do Windows
3938 College View Dr.
Joplin, MO 64801-1565

Re: I Do Windows
Trademark Infringement and Misuse

Seed IP Ref: 663005.80509

Dear Mr. Kinast:
We are writing on behalf of Microsoft Corporation to ask your cooperation in correcting some misuses of Microsoft’s trademarks on your website.

Microsoft appreciates your support for its products and does not object to you using its trademarks to refer to its products. Thus, Microsoft does not object to fair uses on your website that would indicate, for example, that you assist your customers with Windows-related issues. That said, Microsoft’s marks should not be used as part of your trade name or domain names.

Your IDoWindows.info website has come to our attention because of the following misuses of Microsoft’s trademarks:

• Use of “I Do Windows” as your trade name and logo, as seen, for example, on the top of your home page. This is a problem because it includes Microsoft’s WINDOWS® trademark as part of your name/logo.
• Use of Microsoft’s Flag Logo in your logo. Again, this is a problem because Microsoft’s registered Flag Logo is being used as part of your company logo.
• Use of www.IDoWindows.info as your domain name.

A screen shot of your www.IDoWindows.info home page is enclosed with these items marked.
As a trademark owner, Microsoft is required to monitor and take reasonable steps to correct infringement and misuse of its trademarks. The uses above are all problematic because they may cause consumers to believe that your products and services are sponsored, affiliated or licensed by Microsoft, when they are not.

We ask that you remove these misuses from your website, and discontinue use of “I Do Windows” and the www.IDoWindows.info domain name. We would like to agree on a time by which these changes can be complete. We suggest March 31, 2005. Will that work for you? For the www.IDoWindows.info domain name, please let us know if you need to redirect users to an alternate domain name for some interim period. If so, we suggest until April 30, 2005.

Please contact me after you have had an opportunity to review this letter and let me know if you are willing to make these changes and if the deadlines we have suggested are workable. We would appreciate hearing from you by March 15, 2005, if possible.

Thank you for your attention to this issue, which is important to us.
Very truly yours,
Seed IP Law Group PLLC

William O. Ferron, Jr.

Enclosure:
www.IDoWindows.info Screen Shot

<<SFX778.pdf>>

William O. Ferron, Jr.
BillF@SeedIP.com
Seed Intellectual Property Law Group PLLC
701 Fifth Ave., Ste. 6300
Seattle, WA 98104-7092
206.694.4832 phone; 206.682.6031 fax

[forwarded by Ann Winters, Senior Trademark Paralegal assisting William O. Ferron, Jr.]
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