Case Study: Traverse Legal Does Battle with a Billion Dollar Media Company, Wins Arbitration & Negotiates a Favorable Resolution on Behalf of Kirsty.com.
Kirsty.com is One Of the Top On-Line Communities For Women on the Internet. Kirsty faced trademark infringement issues asserted by a Billion Dollar media giant, placing their very existence in jeopardy. Against the odds, Traverse Legal won the initial arbitration and thus was able to negotiate a favorable resolution from a point of leverage. | |
Gabrielle Blair, Co-Founder Kirtsy.com | "I called all three of the top three [law firms]... But, Traverse Legal got back the fastest and was by far the most helpful." |
"This was a fantastic communication company ...We really understood the whole time what was happening and felt like we could call at any time and get someone on the phone that could walk us through any questions or ideas that we had." | |
"From the first phone call and the first contact, had great response from Traverse Legal ... where I never felt like they were hurrying me off a phone call or skimping on e-mail communication. They truly were accessible ..." |
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"I loved how they didn’t bill by the hour. How I could get an exact price on what this project was going to cost, because as a start-up you’re budgeting .. we really needed to know what the cost would be up-front." |
DAMIEN ALLEN: Good morning and welcome to Traverse Legal Radio. My name is Damien Allen and today we have in the studio, via the telephone, Gabrielle Blair of Kirtsy.com. How are you doing this morning Gabrielle?
GABRIELLE BLAIR: Very well. Thanks for having me.
DAMIEN: We’re very happy to have you here today. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about Kirtsy?
GABRIELLE: Kirtsy is a fantastic site that women love to come to and see what the latest and greatest kinds of things that are happening online are. So, if you live in the techie world, you have probably heard of Dig, which is a popular site for men. My partners and I at Kirtsy founded the company based on the Dig model where users can, anyone really that wants to come to Kirtsy, can submit a link to any store that they find interesting on the internet. Basically, any URLs that exist they could submit and the community at Kirtsy can take a look at all of those submitted URLs and decide what they think is interesting and that is the stuff you find on the front page of Kirtsy.
DAMIEN: Nice. I understand that Traverse Legal helped you with a few things. What kind of matters did Traverse Legal help you with?
GABRIELLE: They did and they were so helpful. Basically, back in the day our name wasn’t Kirtsy it was another name and we had a domain name dispute come up where we owned the domain name, but there was a magazine with a similar name that didn’t want us to own the domain name. So, we were a new company and we didn’t have really any legal problems at the time. It was all new to us. But, we found Traverse Legal and they helped us out.
DAMIEN: Had you had a chance to use other legal services from other firms before?
GABRIELLE: We hadn’t. So, basically, what was sort of is a cold call sort of thing and I figured since this is an internet problem we were having that the best internet lawyers would be able to be found quickly on Google. They would be at the top of the list if they new anything about the internet. So, I did a Google search for domain name lawyers and Traverse Legal came up as one of the top three. I called all three of the top three, from the time. I don’t even remember what the other two even were. But, Traverse Legal got back the fastest and was by far the most helpful. And so, that’s why we went with them.
DAMIEN: What do you think is different about Traverse Legal?
GABRIELLE: Again, with Kirtsy I haven’t worked with other lawyers but, just as someone that has worked with lawyers for not Kirtsy related problems I loved how they didn’t bill by the hour. How I could get an exact price on what this project was going to cost, because as a start-up you’re budgeting so carefully and your funds are so limited that we really needed to know going in what the end was going to be.
DAMIEN: What did you think of their billing model, and the extranet, and the fine deliverable approach?
GABRIELLE: I’ll start with the extranet. For Kirtsy it was perfect. We’re a virtual company. We have a partner in Charlotte, North Carolina. We have a partner in Houston, Texas. I’m in New York and we have a new partner that’s in Boulder, Colorado. So, we’re totally a virtual company and we do all of our communication either, via conference calls or online, and so for us the extranet was perfect, because one e-mail would go out. We would all get it. We could all stay in the loop. You get to find all the information in one place. The billing model, as I’ve mentioned, was also perfect for a start-up. Where you really can have an exact price that you can budget for and plan on and that was wonderful.
DAMIEN: Did you feel you got a good return on your legal investment?
GABRIELLE: Absolutely. As I’ve mentioned, we have this dispute about our domain name and we won the dispute which was terrific. The whole way through it had been communicated very clearly, what the chances were of winning and what the outcomes could be. Weeks later we decided to change our company name anyway and go with a new domain. Traverse Legal helped us through that entire process as well. This was a fantastic communication company as far as I’m concerned. We really understood the whole time what was happening and felt like we could call at any time and get someone on the phone that could walk us through any questions or ideas that we had.
DAMIEN: What would you say was your favorite thing about working with Traverse Legal?
GABRIELLE: Accessibility. I truly, from the first phone call and the first contact, had great response from Traverse Legal and time, where I never felt like they were hurrying me off a phone call or skimping on e-mail communication. They truly were accessible and made themselves available to us, their clients.
DAMIEN: Thank you very much for joining us today, Gabrielle.
GABRIELLE: I’m glad to be here. Thanks so much.
DAMIEN: You’re very welcome. And you have been listening to Traverse Legal Radio. We’ve been speaking with Gabrielle Blair of Kirtsy.com. And I am Damien Allen. Have a great afternoon.
Disclaimer: Each case is different. Prior results should NOT create an expectation about results in your case. We do provide deliverables, however, which are guaranteed in each instance. Your retention agreement will provide the details concerning the terms of your engagement of Traverse legal.
People can really appreciate law firms who go out of their way to help their clients. A great law firm can communicate to its client and let them know what is going on. This is a really good read. Thanks!
Posted by: Jim | June 08, 2010 at 14:47