It’s been an amazing week since we announced our crowdfunding campaign to help recoup the costs of our recent legal issues. To date, 136 people have pledged their support. We thank each and every one of them. But we have to keep going, because there’s a long way left to go. To recap:
For the last two years, we’ve been in legal wrangling with Wired’s parent company, Condé Nast, over ownership of the GeekDad brand. The details would make for a much longer post, but the short story is that someone high up at CN decided that they owned the GeekDad brand–a decision with which those of us who created GeekDad, and made it what it is, disagreed. It’s been a hard, emotionally draining two years. There’s been a lot of second-guessing: if we’d done this or that differently or sooner, could we have avoided the mess? But, I’m happy to say, the resolution is nigh.
As of early April, GeekDad LLC and Condé Nast have settled our legal issues. The bottom line is that we are paying Condé Nast to relinquish all claims over the GeekDad brand. It is tough to have to pay for what we believe was ours from the beginning, but it seems to be the cost of business sometimes these days, and while Condé Nast has been firm in their position, they have been reasonable in working together to find a path for the settlement that helps us get back to where we want to be. The price certainly isn’t cheap, but it’s something we feel we have to pay, because GeekDad is incredibly valuable to all of us (and hopefully to you).
To help offset the buyout, you may have noticed more ads and more sponsored posts lately, as well as the crowdfunding. Those are all meant to help pay off this settlement. So, anytime you can use our Amazon store, buy our t-shirts at SlashLoot and ThinkGeek, buy the products in our reviews, click the ads on our website, make a regular pledge to help us out on Patreon, or make a one-time donation via GoFundMe, you are really making a difference. One that we appreciate and allows us to keep GeekDad alive.
