Big changes coming to IKEAHackers
Updated 19 June: Read latest development (New talks).
I am afraid I have a bit of bad news.
Some months ago I received a Cease and Desist (C&D) letter from the agent of Inter IKEA Systems B.V., citing that my site IKEAhackers.net has infringed upon its intellectual property rights. In that letter they asked that I agree to voluntarily transfer the domain name IKEAhackers.net to them, failing which they reserve the right to take any legal action it deems necessary against me.
Long story short, after much negotiation between their agent and my lawyer, I am allowed to keep the domain name IKEAhackers.net only on the condition that it is non-commercial, meaning no advertising whatsoever.
I agreed to that demand. Because the name IKEAhackers is very dear to me and I am soooo reluctant to give it up. I love this site’s community and what we have accomplished in the last 8 years. Secondly, I don’t have deep enough pockets to fight a mammoth company in court.
Needless to say, I am crushed. I don’t have an issue with them protecting their trademark but I think they could have handled it better. I am a person, not a corporation. A blogger who obviously is on their side. Could they not have talked to me like normal people do without issuing a C&D?
IKEAhackers.net was set up in 2006 and truly not with the intent to exploit their mark. I was a just crazy fan. In retrospect, a naive one too. It is not an excuse but that was just how it was when I registered IKEAhackers. Over the last 8 years the site has grown so much that I could not juggle the demands of a full time job and managing IKEAhackers. It also costs quite a bit to run a site this large. Since IKEA® does not pay me a cent, I turned to advertising to support myself and this site.
Now by June 23rd, I would need to take down the ads, not earn any income and still advance their brand on this site. Wonderful!
That’s the story thus far.
And a crucial turning point for IKEAhackers. Now is the time I need your support most.
I will move this site to a new domain in time to come. I don’t have a new domain name yet so I can’t direct you to it immediately. But I do want to let you know when the new site is launched. Please help me make this possible by subscribing to my mailing list so that I can update you when it happens and you can still find all the useful hacks when you need to. Signing up is FREE.
Sign up to:
- Give me a “high five” and support my efforts to rebuild IKEAhackers,
- Continue to be part of the IH community,
- Continue to showcase your hacks, and
- Be inspired by creative IKEA hacks from all over the world.
Most of all, no matter how the future of IKEAhackers turns, I want to thank you for being a part of this community. Because of your support over the years the site has grown to be what it is today – a community that I am really proud of. It is a joy for me to showcase your hacks and share your inspiration with the world.
The sign up link is here or you can use the form below. It takes less than a minute and will mean a lot to me.
Thank you and thank you.
I used to work at IKEA as a coworker – so I have a different perspective. I love Ikea AND your site. and without much research, you’ll just have to trust my statement – your site HELPED developers and designers create new products, and not only that, the last catalog was nearly a tribute to YOUR BLOG! Telling us how we could use our creativity with their products to make our homes our own – isn’t that what IH is all about? I also recall a page on their sight that encouraged creative use of their product. They should be paying you – and this should be your full time job. I seriously doubt the Container Store would be so quick to dismantle something that has reinvented the way the world looks at it’s products.
Katherine, I do realise that there are a lot more “hacking” in their catalog/website and personally, I am glad to see this trend growing. But I creativity and legality are different kettle of fish.
For years I appraised the creativity of Ikea’s showroom and then I saw this site.
Well, I read the other comments. So Ikea was obliged to contact you because of brand protection. They’d better sent you a mail starting with “Thank you for your inspirations to us and the customers”.
I think Ideahackers.net will be a nice change and hackea.net second best.
Or makes their products look and work better.
Sorry to hear that, Jules.
In Canada, you would have deep enough pockets to fight a mammoth company in court. But I recognize Malaysia is not Canada.
Anyway, we have to recognize your site is a big menace to the business model of IKEA. I’m not being sarcastic. It is not a question of trademark. And it is more serious than regular people think.
I’m happy you have helped people help me. I’m happy you have helped me to help people around the World. But your life is more important than this blog.
Maybe IKEA should offer you a position, a job, a monthly salary, because everybody should have the right to live here in this planet. Maybe IKEA should buy your blog just to shut it down. Maybe you should just abandon the blog and let it unattended with all replies and contributions with automatically approval. Maybe you should just sell your blog to anyone else.
What is important is your life. Twenty years from now, what difference this IKEA harassment will have made in your life?
Survive to fight the next good fight.
We love you,
Paulo, from Jules
Perhaps the site should be converted to an IKEA boycott site. This type of hostility towards the people who love a company’s products the most and are the biggest mindshare retention tool they have needs to come with dire consequences.
The C&D is mandated by law if they are to protect their tm. If they don’t then the ability to protect against other infringing is impossible – effectively losing their tm what should be done is you approaching them for a sponsorship based on your following.
Its not the site name that makes it visible but the content that gets the following. Should have had a nm negotiate for you.
I’m all too aware of trademark law and I’ve been trademark bullied by Angie’s List before. A trademark exists to prevent dilution of the brand by others. This is not an “enforce it or lose it” case. There is a reason that ” sucks” sites don’t fall under trademark protection. A simple statement under the logo of “This site is not operated by or affiliated with IKEA Corporation” is sufficient to avoid dilution of the mark.
Having a trademark DOES NOT grant you the ability to dictate where your mark’s words can be used. Trademarks have fair use exemptions just like copyrights, and again: as long as it is quite clear that the user of the mark is NOT affiliated with the company, there is NO VIOLATION OF TRADEMARK PROTECTION.
IKEA is now a trademark troll and should be treated as such.
It is 2013 IKEA Canada catalog, pg 207, top right hand corner; white slab tanem doors;
The IKEA Catalog is my bible – I am a professional IKEA Hacker
Why dont you sell the site to them at your price? or negotiate that if they buy your site you will be incharge of it. Or you can change the name to: IDEAHacker, IKIAHacker, IKAHacker, EKIAHacker
in any case they have the worst marketing mind in their team.
I absolutely agree. In the beginning IKEA was a normal furniture store which offered a lower price alternative then the real wood/oak etc furniture shops. In the last couple of years they went to the “Hack” line and encourage people to use their base line products and turn it to their own style. Even the products are created with such intent (to be a very neutral base product).
Ok they can argue that in the whole world DIY trends had been going stronger and hence the change in their branding decisions and profile changes.
BUT and there is a big but, your site had been one if not the one site which started people’s mind (except that few really creative people who made hacks from the beginning) about how they can actually change things themselves at home. And I am absolutely sure this also enhanced the DIY trends as everybody could get inspiration here on solutions which does not require big budget or specific trade knowledge.
All in all I agree they should be paying you (maybe not for the enhanced profit you have generated for them or for the ideas they took from your website, but) for the strengtening of their brand as now people does not see just mass products but personalisable furniture. They also played up on this in the last 2-3 years so they clearly realised the possibilities.
All in all I would not give them the site for sure, and I would fight if I were you. Till now they used the positive effects of your site, but now they want to go with their own products for DIY and the ones advertised on your site might been competition to theirs.
Really bad PR. If I were ikea I woud have paid you to run this awesome platform.
Wow…just, wow…any other corporation would have been ecstatic to pay you to disseminate all that creativity with their product, but no…if I were you, I would set up, either a petition we could all send in, or their corporate headquarters e-mail or snail mail address…I would certainly like to give Ikea a piece of my mind!
As it is, I may in the future boycott them for abject stupidity in the face of free advertising…
Why is it that big corporations hire their scariest hackers to work for their security, but Ikea is too stupid to understand what a tremendous (and free!) favour you are doing for them..this sucks!
I love your site, have since it started, and whatever happens, wish you the best….
I’m definitely on your side on this one. But I can see where they have an issue that the shop button looks like it’s going take you to Ikea but it actually takes you to an Amazon page selling Ikea stuff.
Told lots of people about your site and will follow to your new site for sure!
That’s really a sad story. I work as coworker in IKEA and i can assure you that very very often people buy something just because they have seen on your website..
I think this is the first time it happens. Many other brands would pay to have something similar for their products.
I will follow you with your new website…let’s show them that money can not buy virality. Ideas do!
Ad maiora.
And now I am done shopping at IKEA. Sorry CrapKEA, I do not support bullies. If I were admin, I would censor out any mention of IKEA and IKEA products; they clearly do not want the free marketing or care about their customers.
Hello Jules, It is unfortunate that IKEA acted this way. May I suggest that you crowdsource a new name (and clear it with IKEA’s solicitors). I would like to suggest a possible name: IH-hackers.
Best of luck with the new site.
Thanks for the suggestion, Jon. I am thinking of running a poll or vote for the best name contest. Should be fun!
A best name contest is a good idea. I think going with IH type logo maybe recreate underneath the letters will let your fans know who you are.. and yet protect you from the legality of it all.. its a huge marketing issue for ikea as they could have become your exclusive sponsor.. and given themselves a huge one up.. but I get it.. they have jumped on the hacking bandwagon themselves.. realizing the popularity.. and so they don’t want competition.. good luck
How does ‘TheStoreThatMustNotBeNamed-Hackers’ sound?? Besides too long? LOL
I think that TSTMNBN could definitely have handled this better. I’ve only recently bought stuff from IKEA, none of which required a hack, but your site has been an inspiration all the same.
They should be thanking you, not suing (or threatening to) you.
ah ah love the name !!
I agree with other comments: it’s absolutely in their brand strategy to develop hacking as you can see more and more in their catalogue, maybe bec they target people in times of crisis (kind of flexible furniture concept)- Sometimes i even suspected them to keep an eye on ikeahackers and update their products, as I had a deja-vu impression. Good job Jules, continue, we’ll follow for sure
I would suggest the more generic “Furniture Hackers” or “Famous Furniture Hackers”. That is how I got here. And mind you, when I typed it, I was specifically looking for Ikea hacks but didn’t even know this site existed. And you should get a better lawyer. They cannot prohibit you from MENTIONING their name on your site, as long as you don’t use their logo. This might be a stupid example, but Zynga tried shutting down all the “Farmville” fan sites by bullying them just like Ikea did to you, and they couldn’t! There’s liberty of speech in America. You can discuss anything you want on your blog, you can mention anyone, you can rate or review anything, you can even post your own pics or fan pics. Just don’t use their logo or catalog pics.
I think something more generic and not so specific. A lot of items hacked are not furniture. As for mentioning their name, that is more free advertising. I love this site and have designed quite a few things from ideas garnered here. And yes, I did go specifically to IKEA to buy the items required.
This is the actions of lawyers, and not Ikea… It is a legal responsibility for Ikea to protect their trademarks. As soon as they stop doing so, they no longer have any right to claim them as their own.
I’m sure the people at Ikea would love to see this site grow, but in this case, the law gets in the way.
Lawyers paid for by IcrapA. Sony did this to my daughter and her site, just bullies. Of course we all know they really need the money.
An oft-repeated misunderstanding of the Lanham Act
Exactly–I’m sure it’s disappointing, but it’s requesting a name change, not for the site to shut down. It’s legal issues. The fact that they were willing to back down on the transfer of the domain is actually very considerate.
Just change name and thats all.
FU IKEA!
LOL!!
I just learned about your web site.
I want to offer names:
Furnikers
Ikiahackers
…
Thank you,
Yaniv
How about FlatPack Hackers? That way you can introduce hacks for other flatpack furniture.
I agree with the other poster. Ikea started promoting furniture hacking and instead of giving credit where it’s due, they decided to attack instead. This way they can claim it was their idea the whole time. They are afraid that Jules @ IkeaHackers will say that Ikea stole their idea and should pay her instead. That what this is about.
I love this site and am so disappointed in Ikea for handling it this way. They should totally be paying you for promoting their products instead of taking it away from you. This site has made me think of the bland Ikea products in so many more exciting ways. Good luck!
Have you thought about a Donation button? Separate legal framework involved with donations than revenue from ad sales.
Just an idea (to keep the domain name, since it really is part of the whole story), and let you be able to support the operations of this great community.
Thanks Andrew for the suggestion. I didn’t know that donations are not considered revenue.
Sorry, but that’s incorrect. Unless you have an actual charity or registered business… any donation made to you will be considered as your personal income by the tax man. You would need to declare all donations you receive as “gifts” on your tax return. Please seek the advice of a tax accountant or attorney if you are going to be receiving a lot of $$ via donations.
With regard to the hosting side of things, feel free to hit me up if you’d like to chat and bounce ideas. Maybe I can help. 🙂
Are you a tax attorney? I am not but I think the donor pays the tax, not the recipient. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_tax_in_the_United_States
If there had been any decency, IKEA would take over all the advertising on this site and sponsor it, that way people could see what they could buy and get ideas from that. I agree that IKEA might just have been thinking of doing a bit of hacking themselves – maybe they should call their actions HackingIKEAHacker.net
Exactly. I wouldn’t call it decency but smart marketing. IKEA is being dumb.
Talk to Ana White (ana-white.com) if possible. She had similar S&D issues with her site a few years ago..
Wow, seriously?!? They should definitely work with you, instead of against you. But that is IKEA, after all. My husband worked there, and they simply aren’t that amazing company they pretend to be. Anyway, how about you create a new website for furniture hacks in general, in addition to this one? People are crazy about hacks and DIY tutorials. And I’m sure a lot of companies would love to advertise with you ( hardware stores, paint manufacturers, etc)
I do see their point in forbidding 3rd party ads on this site (for example knesting.com) but everyone knows building this kind of inspiring communities takes years of hard work and material costs, thus for a company making over $28 billion in revenue last year they should reconsider becoming the main sponsor of your site.
Every user here has bought or is thinking of using IKEA products extensively in the near future and there’s no better way to offer a direct link to specific IKEA product pages to help moving towards the final purchase decision.
IKEA PR team, you still have a chance to fix this.
This is ridiculous. I am an IP lawyer and although the commenter above is correct about the issue of trademark dilution, trademark law recognizes at least a limited fair use defense, which I really believe this site to have. And it is just so short-sighted to bully and shut down somebody who is increasing Ikea’s business. I am in the process of moving into a biiiig house and had planned to buy a whole bunch of stuff from Ikea, lots of it inspired by the hacks here. This is really making me think about going somewhere else.
As a European human rights lawyer, I agree. They don’t have a case, and there’s plenty of case law on your side. A key part of the freedom of expression is the right to publicly voice an opinion. For that reason, copyright lawyers have failed to shut down “[trademark] sucks”-websites.
It’s also very far from the IKEA spirit. Launch a fundraiser for your legal fees, go to the press, and stand your ground!
I would totally agree with the “fair use” aspect if it weren’t making money through advertisers. Which they agreed with–they’ve agreed to the domain and use of the name (fair use) as long as it isn’t ‘commercial’ by generating ad revenue. It’s disappointing, I’m sure, but should not be unexpected from a legal standpoint.
You’re conflating legal principles. You need to look at the loss and gain.
IKEAHacker cannot sell or advertise competing furniture or IKEA products. They CAN advertise or sell products used to improve / alter / better IKEA products. That’s the key to this conflict, and misuse of law to threat is sad, and in some places criminal.
For comparison look at ifixit.com, who sell special screwdrivers and other stuff, just to work on Apple products. As long as Apple do not sell these themselves, there is no loss of sale by the owner of the brand.
Maybe this would be a good time to expand the site’s concept. Make it Furniture Hackers, not just Ikea Hackers.
Yes Lanea, I am looking for the silver linings in this. Expansion is definitely one of them. 🙂
Since IKEA has embraced your concept of hacking, what they are essentially doing is a hostile takeover. Pretty sleazy if you ask me. I suggest everyone who is reading this to go to the Ikea website, scroll to the bottom of the page to the “contact” link to submit a “question” and voice your disapproval of their attack on a fan site that ADDS to their revenue by inspiring consumers, thus leading them to buy IKEA products.
I agree with the idea of the disclaimer as this would fall under “fair use”.
If it’s your advertisements that IKEA is balking about, why isn’t IKEA C&Ding the advertisers themselves? After all, they are creating actual PRODUCTS based on IKEA. (Are those producers authorized by IKEA to make products that are directly reliant on IKEA products?) You aren’t selling anything except advertizing space for those producers, with one notable exception: Your “shop” button goes to your amazon store that actually sells IKEA products in direct competition with them so that may be their biggest contention. That link may negate “fair use” as you directly benefit from any sales generated there. Maybe you should negotiate with IKEA to offer them that button to link directly to their online store in exchange for the click-through revenue (to offset the overhead of running your blog) instead of surrendering your domain?
I’m also submitting other suggestions via the “submit a hack form” (since it’s a submission for hacking the ikeahackers name and to prevent hijacking of any proposed domain name before you can buy it).
Yes! Design a new site with general furniture hacks that aren’t just about IKEA… and keep ownership of the IKEAhackers domain name but do nothing with it. You agreed not to advertise on it, so just have it be a blank site, and they can’t use it. IKEA loses in several ways.
Or maybe you could move the hacks to the new site and just have this post and discussion on here, so people know why the hacks aren’t here. Maybe you could also have a link to Ikea’s FB pages, for anyone who wants to buy furniture to hack.
Ditto this idea.
Also, I’m really sorry to hear about this situation. I get the concept of protecting intellectual property, but this site seemed like it, if anything, enhanced the value of the Ikea brand. It did for me.
Assuming what you wrote is true, and personally I give you the benefit of the doubt, it sounds more like Ikea just wants to grab your domain to make it an extension of their brand.
swedishfurniturehackers.com looks available
When’s the last time anything but branding came from Sweden? Formaldehyde-MDF-and-laminate-hackers.com seems to be available. So does horsemeatballs.com.
Disgusted at IKEA’s legal bullying here.
Sorry, but horsemeatballs.com just made me snort my iced tea out my nose.
Laughed at horsemeatballs.
JSYK, once you search it, it is not available if you search in the wrong place, like stopdaddy.com. Stopdaddy.com is the worst website relayed business on the planet, NEVER USE THEM and NEVER search a web name availabilityon their site. If you search with stopdaddy.com and do not purchase right away, stopdaddy.com will then PURCHASE the name them selves and it will then cost you big cash to get it when it was $6 last week.
So sorry to hear that Jules!
Its sad that they felt they had to take legal action against not only a fan, but a fan that has sent a lot of business their way!
Ikea’s behaviour here seems counterproductive and a ludicrous, but have loved seeing everyone’s hacks here, and hoping for many more under the new name (:
Ugh. That’s really lame. New name suggestion: FlatpackHacks.
Hi Jules, Im at your side in this and wish you all the luck in finding a solution.
As a fellow fan, both as reader and as contributor, this is one of my favorite sites on the web. This is where I go to find, and get, inspiration for future hacks or just to look around.
I wonder if “the four letter named company that I shall not name now” has copyrighted the color and the typeface as well as the name, otherwise you might be able to fix it the Simpsons way…
Completely agree with what others have said, IKEA should be grateful for the business you direct to them and PAYING you would have been a smarter move in the long run.
Here’s a domain suggestion: IDEAhackers.com 🙂
This is so disappointing and I imagine its an incredibly difficult time for you. When you get a new domain, I hope fellow bloggers and even the biggies like apartment therapy, design sponge get the word out.
“Flat-pack Hackers” is the first name that came to mind as an alternate.
This is crazy, They are trying to close down a site that ENCOURAGES people to go by their product and use it in a new way? To buy something that they wouldn’t have normally bought? That’s just crazy. If anything they should be promoting your site.
Wish you all the best, however this turns out. The site is a great source of inspiration, and will continue to be so.
Same thing happened in Hungary. There was a website, which were selling used Ikea furnitures, its name was ‘olcsobbikea’ =cheaper Ikea. Ikea asked them to change their name. So right now its name ‘svedbutor’ =Swedish furniture….
Jules, rally the community to support a http://www.change.org campaign petition. Show IKEA the bad press they will get if they force you to change domain. Everyone on here are IKEA fans and they are really silly to be going against something that is averting their organization.
If I have been spending money for all these years, even against the opinion of my husband that prefers better quality furniture, it is only for your community. I was so inspired and always talked about your site with friends… Let’s continue in some way 🙂
Wow. This makes me want to stop buying from IKEA. It’s like you’re being slapped across the face by the company for loving them. How crappy.
I enjoy shopping IKEA, and their kitchen wares and garden things are usually of very nice design. What gores my ox? Walking into a friends home and there is my chest of draws standing in their entry. Makes me wanna repurpose my chest/dresser to the hubby’s man cave garage. I personally do not want the same thing everyone else has. Am I a snob? Probably the worst kind. However, IKEA is not out here showing shoppers how to be creative, use their imagination and bring their furniture into their homes with personal style and tasteful creativity. Is it IKEA’s job to do that? Obviously not. However, when you waltz into the neighborhood big box lumber/garden/hardware store, they have demos weekly – how to do this and that. They even publish their ideas on their website, along with the how tos. none of this ‘we never did it that way before – and – nope we don’t offer that.’ Big business and big box stores are mostly big blah design outlets. Come on IKEA bring a small amount of IDEAs onto the scene and tell your fancy attorneys to take a long hike off the short pier at the duck pond. Your catalog even leaves a lot to be desired – shelves and shelves of books and DVDs. We all know your shelving is expansive. Great Balls of Fire! Get real! That’s not creative. You are big enough to reach down from your ivory tower and embrace those who wanna have a little more style and grace than the austerity of a cold climate and people with little or no humor. You are offering a product that reflects your nation’s love for simplicity, alas that is a very limited customer group – isn’t that why you branched out? Now, help us little folk with some imagination and creative juices and stop harassing the blog folks. Help us see your product with a bit of flair. If you don’t have it in your blood stream, then GET IT and in the mean time, leave us to our own creative mojo on the blog. Why do we need to look like ya’ll? I personally like cowhides and rustic leather furniture with 12 point buck’s hanging over the fireplace or maybe a stuffed wild boar in the bar with his head and tusks on one side of the wall and his anatomically correct butt on the other side – oh! and that little squirrely brush tail ta boot! Now that’s humor. However, I’m not out here pushing a Texas lifestyle on your nation. even if roast wild boar is some of the best eat’n around. Anyone with a lick of sense knows that all Texans with money go to Arkansas to hunt razorbacks and ducks. Woooooooooo, Pig! Sooie! Razorbacks! And by now we all know about Louisiana duck calls. Wake up and smell the bacon IKEA. Let the little southern-belles have some style and class. Cowboy up guys and get off your high horse. ‘Nough Said.
Shameful behavior from IKEA. I wish someone could do a marketing study to determine the number of purchases as a result of your website. Likely just someone in their legal department trying to stay relevant. Well, in keeping with the infringement theme, may be you can rename your site with the Apple brand scheme of iKEAhackers.com…
Jules, have you considered ging the patreon route? It’s a lot Mike kickstarter, only rather thans a one-time product, it is aimed at content creators who worm on an ongoing basis zich as comic book artists or bloggers. It would allow you to raise enough money to keep the site up without having to resort to advertising.
At least check them out: http://www.patreon.com
Thanks Marc. will check that out.
This is terrible. Your website is one that I look at almost every day, and appreciate very much. It in no way takes away from my buying stuff at IKEA! My home is full of IKEA, both hacked and as-bought.
I don’t pretend to understand all the legal complications but I am horrified that a company which I respected and which I have given my business for over three decades should behave in such a manner.
Please tell us an address where we can write/email to IKEA to protest their behaviour. I understand each IKEA store is locally owned. Where is this C&D originating?
Best of Luck.
Gili
I cannot sign up. Nothing happens – it just says “Please wait”. Is the whole world signing up, so it is crashing?
By the way, please do keep quiet about your new domain until you have bought it. I have seen it too often that a domain is bought by bad guys during open friendly discussions just so they can sell it to the one who originally wanted it and make money on it. So, sshhhh 🙂
Ursula, maybe my server was overloaded. Could you please please try again. Here is the link http://eepurl.com/WXr5H
How about hackea?
This sounds perfect.
That’s a very good name!
Great!
Keep the domain name. At that domain you put a landing page, asking people to visit the new domain.
Put ads at the new domain 🙂
Good luck!
Hi there, Oh No, I only stumbled on your site a few days ago! Fab ideas by the way I love it! Just for the record, I have been trying to sign up for your new email list, but it keeps stalling in the ‘please wait’ stage . Don’t know if that’s your end or mine but thought I’d mention it!
Jules…why not change the name to IdeaHackers like of a play on words with intended jab to Ikea.. He he…
What about IK3Ahackers.net or eKEAhackers.net?
Flatpackmods.com! Go register! Just use this domain to refer to it, without ads. They can´t sue you for linking to another site.
I like that one – flat-pack-mods.com!
big bummer 🙁
ideahackers ??
The people complaining about how mean IKEA is being to Jules or acting against their own self-interest, plainly don’t understand how copyright and trademark law works. They don’t have a choice about protecting their trademark, nor do they have the ability to pick and choose between “good” and “bad” infringements on it’s use. If they don’t issue C&D order in every instance of unauthorized use that they become aware of, they’ll lose the rights to their own name.
If you don’t think the law is fair, petition your lawmakers. If you don’t want IKEAhackers to close down, become a contributor. It’s not more complicated than that.
ok..you re right…but why now? why did they wait so long?
that’s not right, actually or morally. owning a trademark grants certain rights to it, but not carte blanche control over every use of it, everywhere, all the time. there’s a concept of fair use to consider, and the idea of “must defend or lose” is a misconcept which is too broadly applied far too often, and has taken on a perverted life of its own in society.
No, this is not correct. In any sense. You will not find coverage for this mad post in any European copyright legislation, nor is it likely to be representative of North American legislation.
An infringement requires you to capitalise on replacing the holder’s product with yours. Not comment on, evaluate, review, mod or hack it. For this very reason, Apple can’t shut down ifixit.com, nor can they hinder their use of words like “MacBook” or photos of the Apple logo.
This has nothing to do withcCopyrights but wiht registered trademarks. That can be the name, the lettering, a sign in the name or the color of a brand name.
These days trademarks are often part of international treaties. So, local politicians are unlikely to be able to help on this. Sad to see it happen with this site though. Just need to come up with a fun new name.
Dan, I’m not a lawyer but even I can see that not only did Ikea over reach with the C&D letter but, even if Ikeahackers.net fit trademark infringement case law to a crossed T and dotted i Ikea waited way too long to act. In other words, by not acting for 8 years Ikea granted consent.
But in any case not only does this fall under “Fair Use” but Ikea is showing everyone it’s not really a smart company after all.
Sorry to hear about the mess. Since it appears advertising is the way to keep going, move on, find a new name and we’ll follow you there
How very short sighted of IKEA. You are actually advertising their products and I am sure that many people have purchased IKEA to do your projects.
Hi Jules!
It’s so sad that they act this way… I love IKEA but this deludes me somehow. I thought they were more openminded, specially considering that you are promoting their articles by giving them new possibilities of use.
I really hope everything ends up well and you don’t legal problems with them anymore.
I’m really upset on your behalf to hear this. 🙁
I come from the media fandom side, where people with fan sites, who write or draw stories based off existing TV shows or films, have been the target of C&D letters for years. And it’s always just the big hammer of the C&D and lawyer threat, rather than a civilised discussion.
I’m sorry this is happening to you, and I hope there is life after NOTKEA. I will of course follow you into any future site. 😉
Change the name to flat pack hack 🙂
Although I’m personally for taking ikea to court but that’s an expensive option
Jules, make the change to your own domain. Make sure you redirect the whole site to the new domain. Build your own brand. “Helping people hack their living space economically” through more retailers than just IKEA. Their loss, your opportunity to expand.
Take on the challenge, your core idea is good and your work is quality. Keep it up. Thank you for the years of ideas and inspiration and to your continued success.
Ugh. Up-vote for swedishfurniturehackers.com! I hope by not using the brand name you’re able to continue using the ads that support you financially.
Keep ikeahackers.net and make it ad free. But keep ONLY the home page. Move the rest of the content to “swedishfurniturehacking.net” or something like that…WITH ads, and liberally cross link.
Thank you everyone for the all your support. Feel reassuring to know that I am not alone in this.
If you are having trouble with the sign up form, please use this Sign Up link.
Sorry this happened, but as someone who runs a blog with a brand name (and doesn’t work for the company), I get it. It’s their responsibility to completely manage their trademark. I know it’s a pain, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. You have a big following!
Amy, did you run into similar issues?
I was actually in business school when I started, so I asked for permission to use the brand name. Even having done that, there have been (long story) issues over the course of the past six years – issues that have caused me lots of headaches! I’m now in a legal agreement with the company that owns the “Mod Podge” brand name. I’m happy to talk with you any time, because I have a lot of experience with it . . . anyhoo, I now own all the trademarks to all of my sites, just for this reason.
I have stopped buying IKEA products years ago, when I found out that their prices in Greece (a country half-destroyed by the economical crisis and a country that already had the lowest salaries, even before the crisis) were like the highest in Europe. Later on, Greek IKEA was accused of mistreating their employees.
This incident just proves that, apart from bad employers, they are stupid too. I will keep up with boycotting them.
To see the positive – I found your site from a post about the c&d issue…And I will share it further. So a lot of attention for your site.
So I recommend renaming the site and go on. How about IDEAhackers.net…
All the best!
Make this ikeahackers a no-ad static page giving some general info and linking to a new domain ‘ih.net’ or something to continue as usual…
Truly sorry for your situation. Ideahackers would be a great substitute name – keep the blog styling the same. Good luck!
Well, turn this to your advantage: talk to the marketing department. Most of the time these departments are not interconnected so maybe they will even finance your site. Think of it like a startup that has gathered a huge community and gets bought :-).
Hi Jules – Sorry to hear about your plight. Might I recommend FÜRNIHackers.net? Or even FÜRNI.net?
http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/adiab/clips/FF_FincherFightClub-possum.mp4/view
The makers of the film Fight Club had a similar problem where they wanted to reference IKEA but couldn’t infringe on the brand ID. They invented a fictional company called FÜRNI. Given that you’re in a similar situation I think it would be a very cool nod to the film. Unless Fox has registered FÜRNI, which I doubt, and if they have, it would be entirely against the spirit of the film to stop you from using it! And, as everyone has already said, it’s disappointing of IKEA to not go about this intelligently – the C&D letter couldn’t have been signed off on by their design department!
Good luck with it all.
Excellent idea. 🙂
Hackea (as suggested above) is a he joys alternative name.
Hackea (as suggested above) is a genius alternative name.
I found out about this from a story posted on news.ycombinator.com. I hadn’t known your site before. I love hacking things to make life better, and I’ll happily follow your site whatever it’s called. I hope this unfortunate event turns into positive publicity for the site. Best of luck!
I sent this to Ikea Austria (in German):
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
laut der Seite https://ikeahackers.net/2014/06/big-changes-coming-to-ikeahackers.html wurden rechtliche Schritte gegen die Betreiberin der Homepage ikeahackers.net unternommen. Ich halte das für keine gute Idee. Die Betreiberin hat durch ihre freiwillige Arbeit sehr viel Werbung für die Marke Ikea gemacht und hat zahlreiche weitere Kundinnen und Kunden zu Ikea gebracht. Sie musste sich nun bereiterklären, auf ihrer Domain keine Werbung mehr zu schalten. Sie hat jedoch alle Kosten dieser Homepage, die der Marke Ikea doch wirklich sehr viel zusätzlichen Umsatz bringt, selbst getragen.
Ich halte diesen Schritt Ihrer Rechtsabteilung für völlig überzogen und muss sagen, dass meine Motivation, bei Ikea zu kaufen, sich gerade ziemlich reduziert hat.
Im Prinzip ja, aber viel zu sanft formuliert. So geht kein Shitstorm!
Gute Sache, hoffen wir mal das man in Deutschland bzw. deutschsprachigen Raum nicht so dumm ist und da einlenken wird.. Unglaublich wie dumm manche Marketing Manager mit Bloggern umgehen.
Now we know why they stopped Billy and Expedit > they don’t want us to hack their products anymore :-/
This may be a case of the Legal dept not checking with the PR dept before launching this lame-brained attack on you. I agree with the posters who have suggested crowdsourcing for the funds but I think WE, as a community, can possibly embarass them into paying you to do what you do–which is to drive business to them! You can you can count on me for a modest donation and a several “likes” and “shares” and retweets too!
How about dedicating the blog to someone by the name of Ike A.?
Really hope IKEA rethink their strategy on this, seems short sighted on their part.
Have you tried Flattr (http://flattr.com)? It’s a very popular micropayment service in Europe. Some bloggers and podcasters can even make a living with these voluntary donations from their fans.
Just a hint. 😉 Could be worth trying out.
Hi Jules,
It happened to me too, but with an app. They would just have ended up burying me in paperwork and endless legal court proceedings. I ended up caving in even if they didn’t have a clear case. I do understand that they want to protect their intellectual property, but sometimes it is better for a company to see the value of a sub service rather to bluntly kill the service on a intellectual property claim.
Best of luck on your proceedings/solutions!
Hi,
Just a thought on how to create economic support without ads. Try Patreon.com. It’s a place where your fans can give a monthly amount of money that is automatically taken from their credit card. Also, it’s only for people who want to give money. It’s not meant to be a MUST.
I listen to a podcast where I pay 5$ per month even though I’d get it for free if I didn’t pay.
I hope this helps 🙂
Eric
Hello
I am very disappointed with the action of Ikea. As a website developer and operate a lot of the time in the boundaries of the law I would ignore this takedown notice. Ikea should recognize your work that sends customers to their stores. Reasons I would defy this letter
1 You do not claim to be Ikea
2 Ikea is widely diverse word
3 Put a copyright notice in the footer stipulation you are not ikea and merrily a site that is excited about ikeas products and you do not claim to be endrorsed by them.
I had the same issue with clubland FM I created a dating site with clubland in the website address and next thing I know the supplier white label dating betrayed me and went direct to clubland FM who then seen this as a awesome idea and started their clubland connexions site.
They wanted all my material the website address and all my business plans. I told them no way.
So They said as long as it isnt a dating site I could do what I wanted.
So long story short I turned it in to adult entertainment site videos and such and got the last laugh. It’s still going today and had no further contact from them.
The main reason they could not come back to me was beacuse I clearly stated in the footer that I was not affliated with clubland.fm nor was the services connected with them. Their own solicitor stated to me that having this on the footer put me in the realms of they can not touch me.
To the owner of this awsome site I must say fight them. Contact me via my email address for help, design, website names. website law, servers as well as ID protection for your site and safe harbour servers that they can not touch or issue a takedown.
i think you should propose an agreement: get hired by IKEA to manage ikeahackers. It’s simple as that.
You could try to raise the voice using this service http://socialbombing.org/info/how-it-works
IKEA is a unique product, but since ’07, other brands have taken note of their ideas and are also worthy of being featured on a reinvented furniture-hacking site such as this. Sounds like more a loss for IKEA than for you — you now have the opportunity to become THE general home-hacking Website, while theyv’e just lost a lot of respect from their adoring fans.
You could say the same thing as in our opening sentence in ’80. They have always been uniquely successful, but never unique as far as products are concerned.
When things become like that you just have to turn it down. Literally.
So I suggest a new name: AEKI-Hackers. 😉
+1
be careful with the “forwarding” idea as suggested in a few comments – check that with a lawyer first. I once received mail from a big company due to such forwarding (it was not even a trademarked domain, just a subpage on a private site with an autoforward link to a brand store) which led to “false” google search results. I am not a lawyer, but forwarding is pretty much similar to using the domain name directly.
Like the site! Went here first to get ideas for furnishing our house. Why not try something like ideahackers.co? .net was taken…
Definitely think you should be asking them to be your exclusive sponsor…
Perhaps you should do what Apple did.
When they code named one of their ne computers Sagen after the famous astrophysicist his lawyers sent a C&D letter.
So Apple changed the name to “Butt Head Astrologer” and everyone knew who they were talking about.
How about crapoverpricedfurniturehacks.com
HAHAHAHA 😀
IKEA!!!! Pay Jules to run your site!! Find a way to make this your site!! Show that spectacular liberal Scandinavianness that we LOVE!!
Great to hear some support for Hackea. I can see the logo now!
I also like flatpackmod. Or how about flatpackhacker or flatpackhack?
I can’t believe this is happening !
I’m so desapointed bay the ikea policy !
I already had been shocked by their HR policy few times ago, and now this !
They realy are builing a bad image for their company … so desapointed … :'(
I’m an architect, with lots of friends and colleagues who are architects. I recommend IKEA kitchens all the time. I even have them in my own house. I recommend them left and right.
Those days are over.
Cory Doctorow says the cease and desist is bullshit
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/15/ikea-bullies-ikeahackers-with.html
How about
I hAcKErs… Using the IKEA font for the “I” “A” “K” and “E” 😉
ideahackers.net ?
I see two ways out:
either they hire you to run their own community site,
either you go global and don’t restrict it to IKEA products
This is really not nice from blueyellow. Unfortunately you cannot show them, how many more of their Expedits&Co were sold through your site.
There were nice suggestions in the commetns here. But unfortunately only little comments sent to blueyellow will not change a thing. Today it must be a shitstorm through all medias. Started at Facebook, then TV and I bet after that the blueyellow will pay you for your website.
But would you want this? I bet no, because you love your independence and we love it, too. Because the people here showing their hacks is an Inspiration von others all over the world.
The only wonderful thing of a shitstorm is the bad reputation for the blueyellow. I bet for some time Kallax, Billy and Co will be sold a little less. Perhaps a little satisfaction for the way they played with your site after such a long time.
what about IDEAhackers? I realize that is a little English-language centric, though I checked and it is the same word in Spanish, and slight variants in some other European languages, and IDEO in Esperanto.
Though swedishfurniturehackers is good too!
Ikea craziness. Your blog is one huge advertisement for them. They should show gratitude.
I love ikea products. I have to drives hours to get to a store. For shame, ikea! Shame on you. Go, IH, go! Keep up the good work.
How about aekihackers.com for your future domain
Hi Jules,
just in case you are not allowed to call IKEA “IKEA” any more, I suggest “you know who”…
Best regards from Germany
Michael
I feel your pain, but I think it’s time you do a bit of research about the IKEA brand and it’s founders/owners. You’ll quickly start to want to vomit and hopefully stop using any IKEA product. It pained me when I found out about them, though I still checked out your site to hack other furniture not IKEA brand. 🙂
Shame on IKEA. Your fans are grateful for what you do to further creativity and individuality in a big-box cookie-cutter world.
I personally like Hac-kea
Here’s an idea… just rename the site to MeatballHackers
LOL!
IKEA – you may have just lost a few customers.
Jules, please change the name to Furniture Hackers, Clean Lines Hackers or somesuch and allow folks to present hacks you think are worthwhile regarding all furniture lines. IKEA no longer deserves your sole support, and then you aren’t using their name in a way the “dilutes its value.” You expand the range of possibilities (you’ll have to filter more, but that’s the price you pay for reaching out to a wider audience), and create create a wider market for retained paid advertising.
SHAME ON IKEA!!!
How about flatpackerhackers.com ?
Too bad that Ikea chose to handle this this way. Trademarks have a certain amount of “use it or lose it” about them, but I feel they really could have handled this better.
I’ll definitely be following you to the new site.
Keep up the great work!
flatpackhacks.com
Absolutely disgusting from Ikea, your website is in no way harmful to them–and you’re obviously not making any claims to be affliated with Ikea.
If anything, you’re helping Ikea more than anything.
I absolutely love this site, and I simply admire your work. More than that I respect your attitude in this scenario and would support you anyway I can. Keep up the good work 🙂
Here’s an idea. Why not ask the big man (Kamprad) for help? I know it may be futile, but may be worth a try. The company which owns Ikea and the concept is still controlled by Kamprad and a group of external people in the Kamprad Family Foundation. You can contact them at info@familjenkampradsstiftelse.se
Otherwise you could also follow David’s advice and argue that Ikea is a diverse world. Ikea in your domain name could mean anything, like “I Kick the Evil’s Ass”. Hell, you could argue that it refers to the words “Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd” rather than to the company name. Don’t know very much about US law though, but isn’t there something called fair use?
Anyways good luck, this is a great site!
Best wishes from Sweden
What a shame! The only thing this site does is give more revenue to Ikea..
Like you said, if they just talked to you and maybe put some good legal info “this site is not associated with ikea” or something there would be no problem..
Or maybe Ikea want’s to jump on the “hackers are hip” trend and start their own site..
in summary: Boooooh Ikea!! Lets burn a Billy!
What would keep you from creating a new site and simply letting ikeahackers.net redirect to your new page? This would allow all those links all over the inter webs to still go to your new page.
So sorry for this trouble. You’ve done a wonderful job. Very disappointed in IKEA.
I am surprised at how you are reacting to this. I think that if that would have happened to me, I would have simply told them fine, here goes my site, DIY 😉 (or maybe that’s their aim, to create a site like yours).
I understand you invested a lot of time in it and you like what you are doing, so it’s admirable.
Let’s hope they realise this site is doing them no harm….
Somebody on Ars Technica suggested the name “FlatPackHacks”. This sounds like a good alternative.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/ikea-waits-8-years-then-shuts-down-ikeahackers-site-with-trademark-claim/
Are the people working for Ikea completely insane? What you are doing here is called “free promotion” for Ikea and you increase their sales as you show how to modify certain products. They should support and even pay you and not sue you. People making such bad decisions should not work any longer for Ikea and they should be fired immediately as they ruin the values and ideas that should stand for a company like Ikea. Ikea shame on you, I will stop now buying your products.
Don’t give up!
If IKEA wants the second Toywar – they can get it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toywar#Toywar
Hej,
just read about this in an Austrian newspaper.I
http://derstandard.at/2000002049136/Ikea-geht-gegen-Ikea-Hackers-vor
I suppose this is going to backfire against IKEA big time – like the recent Uber protest by cab drivers.
This is now really promoting your site and showing how stupid IKEA PR is.
Good luck and keep on hacking!
Rafael
IDEA-Hackers with the D drwan over the K? 😉
they can only do that because their name Ikea is in your domainname and even than if they would have gone to the international arbitration they would probably have LOST. Legally they have nothing and they just bluffed you and your lawyer who didn’t do enough research into submission. But I know that process costs a lot of money and time and stress and you are up against those jerks being paid too much to do and say stupid things and feeling proud of themselves.
so if you make a new website (mail me I have found some new good ones – hobby of mine) just leave out ikeahackers and you know what – why only Ikea (make it also a consultancy and if you want to make a living, write a book or guides people can download (amazon ebookpublishing), make videos you can follow step by step and become a REdesign consultant (this is yoiur best CV ever)
because what can be done with ikea products can be done with cars, bikes and lots of other stuff (it is the creative mindset that counts and makes the change)
sorry that you didn’t have a better bully lawyer who knew all this
Hi,
i have three domains and i not use one of them for hosting. Only for my mail adresses.
contact me.
Are they getting crazy???I can t believe it!
I work in a seo company and I can assure that changing the name could be really dangerous…even if you redirect everything to the new domain.. page authority is very hard to build…it takes years…
Very sad story! I will follow you for sure!
Bad decision from Ikea! That’s not ok.
A better way of communication is to speak WITH the person and if there is no way a mediator can help.
Nice project btw.
Peace
Don’t give in! They are just banking on the fact that they are a huge cooperation and you are going to be afraid. Go to the mattresses! They can’t win! In the end, you’ll be thrilled when you come out on top!!
IKEA has missed a great opportunity and lost a lot of sympathy! But this is when international companies are run by lawyers only and not by common sense. However, IKEA lost my support already when they started to produce all the crappy stuff somewhere in DongPingPong China. It’s just toxic waste and IKEA has to be careful not to be sued once because they produced and imported all this shit.
jules, you are swimming in answers. but you are also swimming in support.
so far the best conclusive suggestion is [i]” … Launch a fundraiser for your legal
fees, go to the press, and stand your ground! … ”[/i] – you would be amazed about
the support, legal and otherwise, you would get.
also, finding a law office taking up your case should be no problem this way.
greets – henry
I’m really sad, too.
I can’t understand this mindless C&Ding, like it were a trend or new sport.
So many positive influences are silenced by this mindset.
I’ve always been a fan of ikea, now the name has some taste with it …
sad 🙁
replace the name to http://www.SwedishFurnitureHackers.com
what the fuck Ikea ?!
I have a great idea !
Once your new website is up, make another, one that actually makes money: one with a lot of pr0n and avertisement. And use ikeahackers.net for it. Hey … no more furniture, right ? So no way they can sue. And you’d be making money !
I subscribed to the mailing list, and hope that Ikeahackers will live on under a new domain.
Although, I don’t have much motivation anymore to buy any IKEA products after this, I still think it’s amazing to show what is possible with this stuff in a great way. Thanks!
And for IKEA: You totally misunderstood the 21st century and the meaning of communication on the Internet. You should give Ikeahackers more credit or even FUND them. Instead you stab a knife in your own back. Silly.
You have my sympaties Jules.
I have a couple of suggestions.
* Make the site a general site, something like – furniturehacks.com maybe ?
* Change the name to not use IKEA, maybe – flatpackhacks.com ?
I would actually suggest you make it a general site, IKEA don’t deserve your great work.
I like IKEA furniture, but after this I might start looking other places for my furniture needs, after the way they act towards a fan like you.
I run a hosting company and will donate hosting for the next two years. Just contact me at and I’ll get you set up.
I vote
http://www.pikea.com
How about http://www.aekihackers.net?
It looks to me too that these billionairs are trying to steal your site and idea.
Today my wife became to me with an idea to by few armchairs from them but it looks like I have to argue against this plan.
I’ve never heard of this site before today, but let me make sure I’m clear on this:
You run a website that is basically free advertising for IKEA, Talks up their products, and you did it for free? Now 8 years later they send you a C&D for your domain name? It is just a matter of c.r.e.a.m. (cash rules everything around me).
I give it 90 days before they have their very own ikeahackers type site. Could you imagine the positive PR if they just made you an extension of ikea.com? web page admin, full time job? It makes me wonder what clowns are running the show at HQ.
Have you think about a change.org petition to IKEA so they reconsider this.
I suggest a boicott to the company if they don’t change their mind.
Just some ideas
fauxswedishhackers.com
blueandyellowhackers.com
hexkeyhackers.com
hexkeysanddowels.com
And it’s crap they couldn’t give you a license of some kind.
Möbel is the Swedish word for furniture. So how about Möbelhackers?
How about flatpackhack.com?
Have you looked into the ICANN Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy? You might be able to keep your domain name.
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/dndr-2012-02-25-en
“c. How to Demonstrate Your Rights to and Legitimate Interests in the Domain Name in Responding to a Complaint. When you receive a complaint, you should refer to Paragraph 5 of the Rules of Procedure in determining how your response should be prepared. Any of the following circumstances, in particular but without limitation, if found by the Panel to be proved based on its evaluation of all evidence presented, shall demonstrate your rights or legitimate interests to the domain name for purposes of Paragraph 4(a)(ii):
(i) before any notice to you of the dispute, your use of, or demonstrable preparations to use, the domain name or a name corresponding to the domain name in connection with a bona fide offering of goods or services; or
(ii) you (as an individual, business, or other organization) have been commonly known by the domain name, even if you have acquired no trademark or service mark rights; or
(iii) you are making a legitimate noncommercial or fair use of the domain name, without intent for commercial gain to misleadingly divert consumers or to tarnish the trademark or service mark at issue.”
In addition: where is the website registered and who actually owns the name anyway? In contrast to what American politicians wants us to believe, US laws only apply to the territories of the US of A, not Europe nor Malaysia!
It’s good to see IKEA has seen the stupidity in their handling of this case and I hope they’ll come back to you with a decent solution soon. Meanwhile, if you put out a request I’m sure you’ll get adequate legal help for free or very reduced rates. And I think IKEA know that they may not have such a strong legal case, hence they’ve altered their position into something more cooperative. 😉 But: IANAL!!
All the best from the Low Countries!
this is why you should never hire lawyers and let them off-leash. they’re rabid morons without careful oversight by caring, rational humans.
I still own my first piece of Ikea furniture from 1984 and just finished an Ikea kitchen. I visit this site almost daily. How about VoldemortHackers.net? Yeah, I know, Harry Potter C&D letter to follow. Good luck in your search for a solution. I think life is too short to waste a moment fighting in court.
Since you are rearranging parts of their furniture just rearrange the letters in IKEA to EKAI .
Hey Jules,
If you need any help rebranding the new site, I’d love to help on a pro bono basis of course. I don’t love how corporations like this deal with matters like this.
Cheers
Change the name to furniture hackers and lose the IKEA. They don’t want you so you don’t need them.
How about ‘AEKIHackers’?!
I vote for Ryo Cook’s:
” And for IKEA: You totally misunderstood the 21st century and the meaning of communication on the Internet. You should give Ikeahackers more credit or even FUND them. Instead you stab a knife in your own back. Silly.”
Read more at https://ikeahackers.net/2014/06/big-changes-coming-to-ikeahackers.html#B5EDTzlLh2hCvyrs.99
How about http://www.hackik.com ? I just bought the domain and I’ll be happy to give it to you.
dear Jules,
I am offering my help (free!) just in case if you need any help with setting up the new place for this website, IKEA HACKERS DOT NET (*intentional caps) to new domain and/or new location where they cannot bully you.
I believe there are more than enough “web savvy” / tech guys here that can make IKEA HACKERS a better place by collaborating altogether.
You can see my email address in the comment section.
What kind of server resources are you requiring? There’s probably ways to reduce costs or even get things hosted nearly for free. Once you get a new domain name you could set things up that way and then just redirect your current domain there.
The obvious alternative name (to me) is something like flathackers.net. IKEA aren’t the only flat-pack game in town, anyway!
Hello Jules,
I would suggest that you keep the domain name because if you let it go I guantee that IKEA will buy it and use it for their own purposes. Also I read a comment that the current catalog is based on your site. I look at it and from there send a message back to the lawyers letting them know they are using yours and others ideas without compensation. Cause I pretty sure if a employee comes up with the idea IKEA owns it. Not the case when someone else does it. It never hurts to try. I do wish you the best in future endeavors.
This really sucks cause I was going to hit up IKEA this summer based off some of the ideas I have seen here.
There was an episode of Futurama where “ikea” was named “pi-kea” (with PI like 3.1415926535…),
change to PIkea (using Greek letter), and add a line from that episode “thank you for buying swedish crap”. 🙂
How about IkeaAreAssholes.com?
i’m truly angry at ikea. They are managing this in the worst possible way! Being the big one crushing the little one! What a disrespectful way to treat a successful brand, that in the past 8 years have only inspiring people with ikea furniture. They should partner with you, not against you! Worst, they will profit in the future but prohibit you to do the same. Sad!
They should have partnered with you and not alienate a loyal customer base. This is a blessing in disguise as I had no knowledge of your site before this and now I registered. Turn this into an opportunity as they effectively gave you an unbelievable amount of free advertising! Use it to your advantage!!
Stupid mistake from Ikea, bullying is what it is. To help your case, I don’t think they can shut you down for having a fan site, where in fact you are encouraging people to buy their products. But there are probably enough lawyers who visit this site as well who can help you with that.
However, to get the word out to people and especially to IKEA you should try and target some Dutch (yeah, the Netherlands) news outlets and papers. Why you ask? Well IKEA is a Dutch company….yeah let me explain.
The entire holding structure and franchise company is based in the Netherlands for tax reasons. Stichting INGKA Foundation was founded by Ingvar Kamprad, in 1982, which owns the INGKA Holding. Also Inter Ikea Systems BV is based here, owner of the trademarks and royalties… I could go on (read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation)
Hopefully some attention to your case in the Netherlands will help you.
ps. Having Gizmodo.com on board must be nice.
I have an idea for you Jules, call the website ikaehackers or something to mix the name ikea, or ikhackers, you get my drift!
How very shortsighted of IKEA. I’m sorry corporate drones with no imagination think legal action is the correct way to resolve this.
Even with the new site. I hope you’re not handing over this domain…
Hate to see Ikea handling this situation so poorly…. Have you started a petition?
Hide ads behind a “Donate” button. If we click it we can see as many ads as we want to 🙂
Just change it to
srekcaHikeA.com AekiHackers.com or srekcaHikeA.com and be done with it.
😉
Send en email out to all your email subscribers and ask for a donation to get a lawyer.
According to this article – http://gizmodo.com/why-ikea-shutting-down-its-most-popular-fan-site-is-a-g-1591401344 – they have waited too long to make a case of it.
“The essential element of laches is that there has been an unreasonable delay by the plaintiff in bringing the claim. Because laches is an equitable defense, it is ordinarily applied only to claims for equitable relief (such as injunctions), and not to claims for legal relief (such as damages).[4]
A defense lawyer raising the defense of laches against a motion for injunctive relief (a form of equitable relief) might argue that the plaintiff comes “waltzing in at the eleventh hour” when it is now too late to grant the relief sought, at least not without causing great harm that the plaintiff could have avoided. In certain types of cases (for example, cases involving time-sensitive matters, such as elections), a delay of even a few days is likely to be met with a defense of laches, even where the applicable statute of limitations might allow the type of action to be commenced within a much longer time period.
If a court does accept the laches defense, it can decide either to deny the request for equitable relief or to narrow the requitable relief that it would otherwise give. Even if the court denies equitable relief to a plaintiff because of laches, the plaintiff may still have a claim for legal relief if the statute of limitations has not run out.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_(equity)
Don’t give in – and don’t give up!
UGH, this really sucks. I’m sorry. I will support you no matter what and I’m sure your other readers will as well! Your site will live on!
Jules,
If you’re not allowed to advertise, you should consider setting up a Patreon (www.patreon.com) so maybe your fans could contribute to you directly to help keep the site up. If you’re not familiar, think of Patreon as an “ongoing Kickstarter”, where people can pledge a buck or five bucks or whatever, ever week or month or whatever. I know I’d love the opportunity to support this site directly.
Just a thought.
Josef
Idea: change the purpose of Ikeahackers.net to one of “parody” to parody Ikea. That is a fair use of the Ikea name when used in parody.
Next create a new domain for your website, something like hakingfurniture.net. Then run ads on the parody site “ikeahckers.net” for hackingfurniture.net.
I would take furniturehackers.net with subdomain ikea so it would be ikea.furniturehackers.net.
The homepage should be an adfree landingpage and link to the subdomain. People who know that can easily go directly to the subdomain.
Just change the name to IKEAH-AKERS or YKEAHAKERS or…. I-Keeah-Jackers… 🙂 good luck!
How nonesense can IKEA can be? They should be proud that someone is using their products to improve them, and all the community that purchase their products and follow this blog.
If i were IKEA, i would be thinking on at least talk and think on a new business model, there are endless options to have a win-win. But it is sad that they send you a C&D letter.
You should be getting a large influx of traffic today. Your story made the front page of Slashdot /.
I enjoy IKEA and this site looks very interesting to me. I hope IKEA sees your value and offers you a means to continue this site without ads that compete with them.
What if ikeahackers.net simply forwarded to a different domain like the above swedishfurniturehackers.com – might want to ask your lawyer if that is possible.
Why limit yourself to IKEA products? Why not offer hacks from every single source of goods available? Target. Pottery Barn. Wal Mart. Home Depot…
Offer some more diversity and leave the mean people at Ikea to sticking their thumbs up their noses.
I sent the following message to Ikea UK
I have been an Ikea customer for 15 years and have substantially furnished two family homes with your furniture and fittings.
I am VERY DISAPPOINTED with your parent organisation’s actions against ikeahackers.net , which seems very contradictory to the kind of values you seem to keep promoting.
A site which in reality is promoting creativity using your products is very far from damaging your Brand – what will damage your Brand is heavyhanded legalistic actions.
I am under no illusions that you are first and foremost a commercial concern, but I am disillusioned by your corporate behaviour. I want to like the people I deal with, and also have a choice where to place my business.
Your most sincerely Peter Cossins
Badasscheapfourniturehackers
Fuckeahackers
Stick an “L” in front of the domain name and tell those idiotic Vikings it reads “Like a Hackers”.
The first few times I saw the name in an RSS feed, I parsed it as something like “Ike, a hacker”. Add some hyphens to the current URL, and it becomes a site about Ike (and all his internet friends), who maybe happens to like hacking IKEA furniture! %)
There is always a cost of being a fan of a corporation or a product. It all plays into the idea that consumerism is the major world ideology, our type of totalitarianism. I have enclosed a video of mine which was featured on the financial site zerohedge which speaks to this point.
Does anyone know how to say “Streisand effect” in Swedish?
You might try contacting Ken White over at the Popehat blog: http://www.popehat.com/author/ken/
He’s a well-known First Amendment attorney who’s been known to help out bloggers and other “little guys” against legal abuses by corporate behemoths by tracking down pro-bono legal council to push back on this sort of nonsense.
I dont see what legal rights they have?
They dont have the legal right to tell a store how/where to display their products.
As your site doesnt sell their products, i cannot see what legal rights they have in restricting your website?
I would consider this site as fair-use and they have no right in restricting that.
This is just a bluff to stop you, if you take this to court more damage will be done to THEIR reputation, and counter-suing for damages would cover costs…. if I was you i would find a lawyer to help (pro bono)
Hello,
I just read an article that you are closing your blog site because of the Ikea lawyers. Don’t give it up completely. Just rename it to something like Aeki Hacker and spell Ikea backwards because they seem to be very backwards. Im sure you can get the following of people to convert over to your newly named blog if you decide to do so. I hate that these corporations would do something like that. I wish you the best.
Charles
Hi Jules – I wrote about IKEA Hackers on my blog for the first time in August 2006 and I have been a fan ever since 🙂 I think IKEA is handling this in a very unprofessional way – after all this is 2014 – we (the people formerly known as the furniture assemblers) have social media and the power of digital word of mouth – this could become very painful for their brand – and if you ask me it is well deserved if they don’t revoke on this matter.
Just make it
http://ideahackers.net
How about Flat Pack Hackers. That way you can expand to help competitors too, seeing how IKEA doesn’t deserve loyalty any more.
You’ll come out of this way stronger. Go Jules and your community :).
Sent you a message to facebook (they alerted me it went to a folder “others”, or something like that) and google+. Hope to hear from you.
Jules: I’m a US lawyer who knows a bit about this law may be able to help you pro bono drop me a line
How about:
http://www.SwedishDirtBagsFurnitureHacks.com
or
http://www.UngratefulCompaniesProductsMadeUseful.com
Do you think they will go after http://www.ikeasucks.com next? Or is that site protected until truth in advertising laws?
Ideas for a name change;
Idea
Likea
Sikea
Ikeep
Ikeap
or simply add another letter,IIkea.
How’s bout http://www.SIAOkea.com ?
In local tongue (or Hokkien) it means “Clown” (or mentally challenged person).
If you want to keep all four letter, try this I-Siao-Kea
Incredibly badly handled on their part. Sadly you would probably win if it went to court, but they would probably pauper you before ever giving up and win that way.
Never heard of your blog until I read an article about this happening.
I have a few ikea pieces, but I think no more.
May I suggest flatpack hack?
For years I admired the creativity of Ikea’s showroom and then I saw this site.
Well, I read the other comments. So Ikea was obliged to contact you because of brand protection. But they’d better sent you a mail starting with “Thank you for your inspirations to us and the customers”.
I think Ideahackers.net will be a nice change and hackea.net second best.
Huck, pikea for gepikeerd(affronted)?
I always come to your site for ideas when the stock IKEA stuff does not do what I want. Ideas here are the needed customization just like how you would soup up your car. Notice you loved to perk up a mini cooper but not a Corolla? Ikea, this site makes your brand worth more.
Hi Jules,
I cant match what the good people above have said about you and your site, but i suggest you modify the sign up page and add an additional optional field:
suggested domain name -> some readers at this post are giving good ideas for a domain name, if a great one comes along, you dont need a jerk harvesting that name and taking it away, make it private
best of luck, and you know what, dont make it ikea exclusive, other small and big furn. makers will be more than glad to be included in hacks readers contribute!
Well thats the last time I ever shop in Ikea again – smacking the small man when he is just trying to earn a crust and ACTUALLY supporting and generating Ikea sales.
John Lewis for me from now on – Ikea stuff is cheap tack anyway at least this site made something decent out of half of its overpriced mdf crap!
Leider haben du und dein Anwalt sich zu schnell erschrecken lassen…
Ich bin mir fast sicher das Ikea die Domain für den Eigengebrauch haben will und das möglichst billig, daher die Drohung mit Klage (“kleine” Menschen erschreckt man leicht).
Bin schon gespannt ob es 2-3 Monaten nach dem Übersiedeln die Ikea-eigene “Ikea-Hackers” Seite geben wird^^
Jules, are you silly or what? I wish I could knock some senses into your head lah, lady.
You’re being bullied, and you still wanna start a new site and continue helping them discover new ways to use their products, and in the process, help increase their sales? Are you out of your mind?!!?? So free ah, with nothing to do than to continue to feed the dog that bites its owner’s hands?
Sorry for being harsh, but this is just how I feel at the moment.
Although I do not know you personally, but still I cannot stand seeing your noble efforts being “bullied” by some (four letter word)-ing monopoly-like organization.
These lousy business people have done the damage, and now, we’ll let them see what they can be without us raving fans. What is a restaurant without hungry customers? What is a cinema without movie-goers? What is a house of worship without devotees? Nothing.
Business is a two-way thing. Customers are NOT always king, and vendors are NOT the ones who call the shots too. Both vendors and customers need each other to survive. But if the vendor is trying to act like it’s a big brother, then sorry. We customers can definitely find another alternative, somewhere else. UNLESS this is a vendor who supplies the air we breathe, then we have to kow tow to them and do what they want us to. Other than that, Jules, you can ask Eyekeeya to go fly kite.
Although they wont die or run out of business, I will feel better not giving them my hard earned money and in the process help feed a big lousy bully. I would rather buy something more expensive elsewhere (not that their products are cheap to start with).
Yes, some of their products can be quite creative or appealing and functional. BUT, they forgot one thing (just like they forgot that they are digging a grave for themselves by doing this) – there are MANY other products out there that can perform the same function as the products in their store and starting with our family, we will buy OTHER products first before considering them. And we will continue spreading the word so that others are aware what a louse this company is.
(Next you know, you cant even take a photo at home sitting on the sofa you bought from their store, lest they sue you for infringing their design copyright by using the item in your personal photo)
All you people suggesting anagrams or backwards spellings of the existing name are fucking weird.
Why not something like “Flat Pack Hackers” as an alternative?
I-key-ahhh.com
Your website to all creative hacks and mods based on Ikea goods.
Jules, If you can’t advertise. You could consider using a service like http://www.ko-fi.com so that people can show their appreciation by donating a small amount to buy you a coffee (which could be used for anything). That’s not advertising. And i think it’s a nice way for people to support you. I would certainly buy you a coffee! Keep fighting!
I like this hacking site in the early day, when ads not as rampage. I know hosting cost money, but it seems the whole site now full of ads and confusing clicks, That degrade the quality and indirectly affect Ikea. Just matter of time somebody accident click the ads that happens redirect to a virus page and blame ikea.
Surely this is an opportunity to diversify and publicise their competitors products as well as ****’s products? What an own goal by ****.
cool
Hi Jules,
It’s really sad to see a big company bullying little ppl with great initiatives!
But i have got a few suggestions (check your mail)
regards
I also like flatpackhacker or just flatpackhack
Wow, what a wrong move from IKEA! I work for IKEA but I would expect that it can handle such things better! Could be such a great investment on their side to become your sponsor and keep the site running! Hope you figure out soon how to deal with it and if you keep the name simple Im sure Google will easily find your new site! FurnitureHacks sounds great to me!
Hello Jules,
I just wrote IKEA, as everyone who is commenting here should do. This is the only way for us to help you and for them to understand how stupid (from commercial, marketing and branding points of view) they are.
Good luck, and whatever, keep yours this website, first to redirect readers to the new website, you might be able to use it again later,
You should send them a letter asking for compensation for stealing your and your posters ideas and using them in their products.
This sounds like they intend to copy your site and ideas and they just wanted to steal your domain name which in turn would steal your followers.
Hopefully you can get some help to turn this around.
Name it “FürniHacks” referring to the famous sequence in David Fincher’s “Fight Club”. I’m sure they weren’t sued by Ikea.
See the sequence here:
http://toldbydesign.com/david-fincher-fight-club/
How about a name change to IDEAhackers and less of a concentration on IKEAs specific flat pack stuff? Lots of other companies issue cheap flat pack and would likely be grateful of the publicity.
Change IKEAhackers to IQUEAhackers…. sound like seems to IDEAhakers
In Spain IQUEA = IKEA (sounds)
Let me get this straight: you’re being accused of being ‘commercial’ by a company that uses tax havens and claims it’s a charity while banking millions of euros? The hypocrisy is astounding.
Ikeahacker has been in existence for 8 years and it only wants to take it down after all this time? Strange if you ask me. I worked for ikea running multiple market hall departments and I used to setup product displays in unique ways and it grew sales drastically. But I would always get shot down, being told “thats not the Ikea way”, and be told to take down my displays, only to see sales plummet. They are so big and arrogant that they do not care if the sales suffer as long as things are done “their” way. They have so called core values in running the business and treating their staff, but its all pretentious. Its funny how after leaving ikea for several years, that I start seeing display solutions that I had proposed so many things but reprimanded for, start appearing in the big blue box now. How ironic.
possible new name:
swedish-house-mafia-hackers.com !?
I have certainly made purchases at Ikea based solely on articles I’ve found on this site. Ikea still lives in the old mindset that they control the entire experience that brings customers into their stores, when in reality, customers have access to every resource to make the best decision without ever having to go into the store.
Booooooooooooooooooo for IKEA. Way to kill the positive fan-base that ever existed. Jules made you Hundreds of thousand of extra dollars. Shame on you for not recognizing that.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Wouldn’t this site be found through search engines with the frase “ikea hacks”?
This is disgraceful. You have created a site where people can show off their ideas of using IKEA bought products in a slightly different manner than originally planned. People still go out to IKEA to buy the products thus IKEA are still getting money so what should it matter? You shouldn’t shut down.
IANAL, but they don’t have a leg to stand on. You are using the trademark truthfully. You don’t encourage people to hack random companies furniture and call it Ikea, right? No, you use the Ikea trademark to refer to Ikea products. The fact that you are making money off this site is meaningless.
A company’s control over their trademark is limited in the United States by the First Amendment, which says that Congress shall pass NO LAW restricting freedom of speech.
All of that said, you should probably never have, and immediate stop, using “IKEA” in blue and yellow and their font. Using their logo makes it look like you might be trying to confuse people.
Or maybe you’re screwed because you already agreed to use it non-commercially. Anyway, best of luck with this.
Hey,
just change letter combination from IKEAhacks to IEKAhacks. Layout of letters and so on should stay. I think than you hacked even the Name 😉 And by quick reading you will skip the difference with your eyes.
greets
Chief
IKEA ! a very bad decision!!
http://gizmodo.com/why-ikea-shutting-down-its-most-popular-fan-site-is-a-g-1591401344
Why didn’t they just hire you and pay you for the site and pay you to run it? Short sighted IKEA very short sighted.
@IKEA: are you nuts? it seems that you don’t know about the benefit you get from sites like this – from fans they support you and buy your products.. what could be better than a positiv pr in internet.
did you ever suffered a shitstorm? ask other big companys about how it could be when customers start hating you, and how difficult it is to get rid of a bad image – belive me i know what i’m talking about!
if you are clever give jules a high paid job – you’ll get x-times more than you’ll invest…
I complained to Ikea on Facebook, and I received this drivel in response:
Hi James, we’re glad you reached out. Over the last 8 years, IKEA has appreciated the enthusiasm that the IKEA Hackers blog has shown for us. It is through creative supporters like this that our products flourish in the homes of our customers. At the same time, it is important to protect that the IKEA name and brand are being used correctly. As a result, Inter-IKEA Systems and IKEA Hackers have agreed that IKEA Hackers will continue as a fan-based blog/webpage but without commercial elements. We look forward to seeing more interpretations of IKEA products!
By “have agreed” I assume they mean “bullied into”?
Perhaps the cease and desist has something to do with the specific ads? I come here periodically and even today, AdSense displays links to other non-Ikea furniture sites. Granted, a fair amount link to sites with Ikea mods but there are enough links that also direct to different furniture companies entirely. Maybe Ikea doesn’t like some of these ads drive business elsewhere or that they imply a correlation between Ikea and non-Ikea brands (which could dilute their IP). Anything you can do to pare down the types of websites AdSense advertises?
Shame on Ikea !! How about a crowd-funded legal battle? I’d donate.
Just don’t try and use their corporate colors, logo, etc… the idea itself is great, and thus why so many love the ideas and articles here. I suspect by IKEA’s “people need to trust us” response that this site isn’t branded differently enough that people don’t know it’s a separate entity. Ditch the yellow and blue, copycat logo and make it your own, and you might find their legal team more willing to embrace the site. It’s a win/win for IKEA, so long as people aren’t holding them accountable… but without this distinction, the site cannot continue as is.
Ikea Hacker wrote, “…a different domain like the above swedishfurniturehackers.com – might want to ask your lawyer if that is possible.”
How about http://www.flatpackhackers.com
Buy
hackea.net
redirect all traffic there. Create a non-ad landing page for ikeahackers.net, but redirect to hakea.net/ad site for blog posts.
Disgusting and completely stupid from IKEA. New name suggestions: IKhackers (dot net, com, anything, seem to be all free). Or maybe it’s just time to expand a bit from IKEA only and become something like furniturehacking.com (taken, too bad)
Gutted to hear this. I’ll be reviewing my whole approach to the B and Y.
Ikea is a bit like Lego so maybe the basis is copyrighted but odifications and pictures of them aren’t…
Now they should have see the commercial aspect and asked to be the unique advertiser of ikeahackers.net
When your moving your site you can instruct the domain to 301 redirect to the new domain, that way any returning custom is not lost and you will not be infringing the trademark any more at the same time.
It is also important because without redirecting traffic you will lose all your google rankings and etc. You need to link everything from the old domain to the new one to retain all google rankings.
Please feel free to get in touch with me if you need some assistance. I would be more than willing to lend a hand!
I am so sorry you were trethened by IKEA as corporation. I find it unfair, as I personally do not see how you do actually any harm to them- actually I think that this web is actually promoting IKEA. Also I do not like this approach where the big, rich guys (who by the way make their big money by us, little people who buy their products) try to supress something so wonderful and creative and smart as this web. I want this web to contnue exhisting.
Hence I suggest that you do not start a new web or consider changing the name, but to use us, your funs and IKEA customers and MAKE A PETITIION! If enought of us sign up the pettion the big IKEA corporation will hopefully be under enough pressire to reconsider what they ask form you and maybe try to find win win situation for both. I love IKEA but I hate autocragy and power ower….so let me be the first erson to sign your petition.
A big Hug from Hungary
Barbara Guttman
founder of Art School in Budapest
Can you please post a copy of their C&D? It is highly, highly unlikely that they have a case for trademark infringement due to how you are using the term Ikea. There is clear existing case law which supports your specific use of the term “ikea” on your hacks. See Network Automation, Inc. v. Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc., 638 F.3d 1137 (9th Cir. 2011) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Automation,_Inc._v._Advanced_Systems_Concepts,_Inc.
I agree, this web site is yur intellectual property, yuor idea and it is genious.
Please do not give it up- lets try to find a win win solution instead- and IKEA should really paying you for what you are doing not trying to take this over. I hope you manage to find someone else in IKEA who is going to represent more the values and world views IKEA keeps advertising (Instead of this lawyer who thretens you and puts ultimatums and his limited ideas how this thing can be sorted out legally) . I am with you Jules and so are hundreds of thousand people…
PLEASE LETS START PETITION! LETS try to convince IKEA that we, small people, customers who they live from have voice too.
Hugs
Barbara
As a great fan of the site it is saddening that Ikea has gone with this method. On the thoughts about a different name maybe Flat Pack Hackers or something of that effect. This would allow you to have an Ikea section and maybe even others should some other flat packs be hackable.
Keep working hard, I always enjoy a good perusal of the daily updates.
Went to Ikea over the weekend, there stuff is terrible! Don’t know why anyone would buy there badly made furniture!!!!
I’m really saddened to think IKEA will not celebrate your site and instead decided to bully you into removing the minimal advertising you require to keep yourself solvent. A retail giant like IKEA should know the bad press from this move will certainly resonate with fans and consumers across the globe.
I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed your site and will continue to do so at your new domain. More power to you Jules, your good ideas will never be lost on truly creative Hackers everywhere. Best of luck!
How about renaming to ‘EKIAHackers’?? Its an anagram of IKEA, and yet it still sounds the same, and it will avoid legal issues. Fans shouldn’t have an issue with it considering this current situation either.
Thoughts people?
The Foxe
If I understand this right, the problem is the ads, that you make money from using the IKEA brand? But the ads are also a problem for us! My fans are spinning just to power some stupid ad animations, so your page would be much better without them for the users, not to mention how disturbing many ads are. Double problem. Have you tried to negotiate a deal with IKEA where they, alone, have ads on your page? Or help financing it without ads?
They could have handled it so so much better. I am so disappointed by ikea and what has happened to you. I am behind you on this one.
How about aekihackers.net? It would certainly be clever enough to work against their own rules.
Are these people insane at IKEA? (Will I be fined for writing their name??) I am a huge fan of both IKEA and IKEAHACKS, and this is an insult. F**k them. I work in marketing for years, and this is complete nonsense. Now I hate IKEA and I will seriosly consider not buying anything there any more. (BTW i am looking for a new kitchen, IKEA, you’ve just lost USD 5000. 🙁
i would just use AEKI_hackers as new domainname.. As let them going crazy..
Best wishes..
Greets
KId Cubain
Jules, Don’t give up ownership of the IkeaHackers.net domain name. I bet Ikea wants you to give it up and a few years down the line they will open their own Official hacker site called…Wait for it…Ikea Hackers.
I think giving the Ingvar Kamprad Egoistic Axxx such support as you did these past 8 years is indeed naiv, and you never asked what kind of low ethics IKEA stands for.
– the now 88 years old Ingvar Kamprad has in his younger years – in 1945 he has been 17 – a Nazi. At age 17 people are young, may make mistakes etc., and he has indeed been one of those which did not think much, feel much.
– in the cold war times Ingvar Kamprad used the cheap labor cost levels in East European countries for production of his furnitures. Even political prisoners worked to make for IKEA all kind of fittings to earn for their country GDR western currencies.
– in the beginning IKEA furniture, all of the core material MDF, have been known as Formaldehyde bombs. They still smell like cat shit and they have to be left at fresh air until the small of the MDF Formaldehyde is reduced or people get used to the cat shit smell, or both. Ingvar Kamprad is not much interested in the health for his customers.
– all with IKEA about big family, club, sekt. The low paid IKEA worker enjoy kind of nice family feeling on the job, all are slaves, all get paid very low, this indeed creates that family feeling.
– Visit IKEA and learn how they developed a system to get as much money as possible out of your pocket.
Start for the long way through the IngvarKampradEventWorld at their restaurant, you may need to eat & drink before you make the long way through the show rooms to the racks where you find your down knocked furniture to the cashier and the food center after the cashier.
An IKEA store is built like a labyrinth, you are on an Odyssey, you did not have a battle but a similar long way home like Odysseus.
No direct ways, you have to move and see all what IKEA hopes to sell to you, nothing what you really need, but all not such of expensive that you would refuse to buy.
Strange as to the non-collaborative approach, very strange. Hacking, modifying furniture is def the way forward considering our space-lo times, house design and people’s ever-growing desire to personalise. This is really a trend or ‘culture’ to tap in to.
If I’d never come across IH I would have never have done what I’ve done today.
Scratching my head here…
SO disappointed in IKEA. If they claim that it is only for safety of products, that hacks could compromise the structural integrity of their design and make it unsafe- why are they willing to let you continue without advertising?
It is clearly a money-grabbing situation where they want to take your hard work and use it for their own HACK site to profit from. Why couldn’t they just do that from scratch rather than take yours? That would, at least, be more fair competition. Shame on IKEA.
Jules, Sorry to hear about this news and I’ve always enjoyed your site. It continues to inspire me to look at every day things, not just Ikea, and see how it can be repurposed or made better or even more useful for a particular need. I shared my unhappiness on Twitter and recently received a response: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_CA/customer_service/20140618.html
I hope a solution is resolved that will be good for everyone! Keep up the awesome.
If this were my website and I’d been issued a C&D my response would have been to register a new domain (say something like “flatpackhackers”) only post new content to the new site, support the new site with advertising, and keep the ad-free “ikeahackers” as an archive while promoting the new site. Eventually I’d copy over the archive to the new site (editing out any potential IP infringements) and let the original domain lapse when the new site was well known enough.
Is the point of this place to be an Ikea fan-site, or is it for the love of hacking flat-pack furniture in general? A broader more generic domain name would open it up to showcasing hacks of other flat-pack furniture brands from other stores.
Change your name to IDEAhackers, but keep the logo in the style of IKEA, People will get the connection. Also, include hacks to some other inexpensive furniture brands like CB2 and Target and you’ll be fine!
As many have stated above I am deeply saddened and disappointed in Ikea for this shady move. I adore your site Jules and look at it all the time. Don’t give up! Keep Ikeahackers alive!! 🙂
IhacKEA would do just fine 😉
what a bummer! I’ll sign a petition!
Wouldn’t be the first time. Check this out. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ST%C3%98R
Incidentally, there was a Simpsons episode that parodied IKEA. They called it SHØP. Wonder if IKEA went after the producers.
Got an e-mail from Ikea regarding this. Couple snippets.
“We deeply regret the situation at hand with IKEA Hackers.”
“We are now evaluating the situation, with the intention to try to find a solution that is good for all involved.”
Looks like someone is paying attention.
it’s so strange, after all of this I just can’t see them the same way. with a bitter taste in my mouth. why couldn’t they be just cool and become your “partner”? not the smartest move, and yet they are getting attention even now. ehh, I wish you luck Jules, hope it gives you some attention too, attention of people/organizations that have the power and possibility to help you out here.
Jules,
You can’t be serious! You are really going to walk away from Ikea Hackers and literally just give it to them? All they want is your site. They want your idea. You’re just rolling over and playing dead. I know they’re a huge corporation but this is your baby! Call Gloria Alred! She’s a feminist activist and does pro-bono cases where there’s huge media. A woman who started her own little blog 8 years ago is now being bullied by Ikea….maybe it will outrage her enough to help you fight them. At least try!!!! Don’t quit until you’ve exhausted every option. I still don’t think they have a legal leg to stand on. I think they are just calling your bluff, and you are bluffing so badly!
I didn’t read all the comments as the list start to be pretty long but does ikehackers is an option of new domain name since it doesn’t contain the ikea brand but is still close to the idea?
I’m really disappointed by this ikea story, We’re big fan… Or should I say “we were”…
AEKIhackers?
Wow … Ikea … it didn’t expect this. Turning into an evil company. Why not widen the scope of your website … give Ikea competitors a chance … call it FurnitureHacks or something like that … 🙂 They don’t want your support and don’t realise the value you create … sad … their marketing team is not that creative to come up with that idea.
1. In what country are you residing, in what country is this domain registered, in what country is the site hosted. -> Move it out of the US. No juristiction with these kind of letters.
2. IKEA is basically furniture built with pressed paper (crappy shit). If you want furniture that will be around in 20 years, you buy something else.
Sure it looks nice, but it’s utterly crap.
Or:
send them a letter back, that you are willing to change the domain name into worthless-furniture-hackers.net
Let’s see if they like that better 😉
Change it to Likea or LikeaHackers.net
My vote
Eaki hacki…
Next C&D is for iKea from Apple as they feel they are predating their i-word empire.
Would someone stop this nonsense?
I think the site should be called AllenWrenchArmy.
And it’s incredibly stupid for IKEA to attack a site that so heavily promotes its products.
Ikeahackers have given me ideas for solutions I otherwise wouldn’t have thought of and have sent me to Ikea to pick up stuff I otherwise wouldn’t have bought. It’d be sensible of Ikea to consider the customers they have received through Ikeahackers that they otherwise would not have had. Surely I can’t be the only one that bought something at Ikea that didn’t originally fit my brief but was inspired to get anyway because of this website? Ikea should be working WITH Jules, not trying to shut her down.
I feel you pain… I too had a slightly profitable site (200 bucks a mo lol), that I had years in the making ripped from me by a lawyered up corporation, because they had recently trademarked the work “Consumer” and i had that word in my domain… it still hurts even 4 years later…… keep up the good fight
I was hoping that High Five link was going to go to a Tip Jar Paypal account with a $5 donation pre-populated. Keep us posted…The least we can do is help you get the site moved if need be…
In all honesty, as much as I love Ikea, if they aren’t going to work with you to let you use the name (they would have done better just to hire you to run the site for them), then you should be free to expand the site to include other makers. I know you love ikea, but it would be great to see hacks that include other brands so we can get the benefit of the community’s creativity on hacking other products that we have access to.
I totally get that they HAVE to protect their TM in that way, but you’ve got to protect yourself. I’d love to see a furniturehackers.net where you have a section for ikea and maybe a section for other brands, see what brands win out in the hacking world. Anyway, good luck, and I’ll stick with you whatever you do. I’ve gotten so many ideas from here.
Ich wollte es erst nicht glauben. Und jetzt bin ich etwas sprachlos. Ich finde das von IKE* ganz, ganz schwach. Viell ist deren Zeit einfach vorbei und man sollte besser woanders kaufen. Schade. Auf Nimmerwiedersehen IKE*.
At first I couldn’t believe it. Now I’m out of words. Thats very, very poor from IKE* .Maybe their time is over and we should change our Dealer. It’s sad! Bye bye IKE*
i’m sorry you have to change it!
i vote for hackea (1st choice) or ideahackers for the new.
ideahackers would sound similar, so it would be easy to remember.
Well, you have to ask yourself what is more important to you, keeping the name or being able to support yourself through the community you have built? If I were you, I would just look for a new name and continue to profit from your ads. How about Eyekeya Hackers or Hacking Ike? Or Eyekea? Or Ike Hacks? Or IQEA Hackers? You can basically just change one letter or sound it out to be the same and it would still work.
I don’t get it…. IKEA should be grateful for your fantastic website, as it provides great avertising for them, and for free! It happens so often that my hubby and I wander through an IKEA store and say, “oh, look here – some IKEA worker has been reading the Hackers-blog again!” (Often it’s plain to see.) I will follow this great blog,Jules, whatever the Swede will do! Don’t let them get you down!
Nicole
Hi Jules, keep me updated. I’m one of your followers, kind of tied up.
Wauw….amazed by the stupidity of TSTSNBN! I recently bought a house and I did not want to fill it with that same kind of furniture everyone has. Since I found your website I can’t wait to get to decorating with all of their stuff but still looking like MY own place. There are items that I would never buy regularly but once I see the hacks I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them….
I actually don’t tell anyone about this site cause I want it to be my little secret 🙂
Thank you!!!
I know I am very late to the party, but what about MyKEA as a name? That would probably only be an option if you wanted to stay focused on IKEA hacks. I do like the idea of you branching out into other furniture hacking, though.
hacKEA
I love your website and would like to “sign-up”.
I’m always really surprised when large companies make such a big deal about things like this – it’s hardly trademark exploitation. In fact, it’s celebrating, promoting and making their products even better and more useful. You should be sending them an invoice!
Half of my wedding photography studio is made of their furniture and whilst cheap, it really does the job!
Hiya mate, just stumbled across this post and thought I’d add a vote of support. Love the site and as my wife and I are huge IKEA fans we’ll be checking out your site in more detail. Good stuff 🙂
I totally get that they HAVE to protect their TM in that way, but you’ve got to protect yourself. I’d love to see a furniturehackers.net where you have a section for ikea and maybe a section for other brands, see what brands win out in the hacking world. Anyway, good luck, and I’ll stick with you whatever you do. I’ve gotten so many ideas from here.