Last Updated on July 19, 2022
The Coveted at The-Coveted.com is a blog founded in 2007 by Jennine Jacob. Jennine is also the founder of Independent Fashion Bloggers, the biggest online community for fashion bloggers. She's spent the last few years working like crazy on her brands. As a result, her blog and IFB are huge today and Jennine is incredibly well respected within the fashion blogosphere.
Cut to a few days ago when Erin Kleinberg (designer) and Stephanie Mark (former assistant for Kate Lanphear, Style Director of US Elle) launched a new fashion blog named The Coveted at TheCoveted.com. I didn't want to comment on this until all facts were clear, but Jennine's latest post brought out evidence that Kleinberg and Mark had been well aware of her blog beforehand.
This confirms the initial thought of many bloggers who suspected that the team behind TheCoveted wants to build their empire on the basis of Jennine's already well-established brand.
Jennine has taken legal action against TheCoveted. However, Kleinberg and Mark's lawyer replied that Jennine and everyone else - yes, that's you, me, us - should stop talking about them or they'll sue her.
You know what? He's right.
Why you need to stop writing and tweeting about TheCoveted.com NOW:
There's no such thing as bad publicity, especially when your blog is new and needs more readers. If you've written or tweeted about TheCoveted in the past few days, you've actually contributed massively to its extremely rapid growth. Really, Erin and Stephanie should build you a shrine.
Let's have a quick look at traffic metrics: TheCoveted's current Alexa rank is 505,348 (Alexa, although far from perfect, is currently the most reliable tool for analyzing how much traffic your site receives compared to others). That's a damn fine rank for a blog that's only been around for a few days. FYI, their Alexa rank was around 600,000 just yesterday.
The more links and visits a site receives, the more its Alexa and Google ranks grow (if you google "the coveted", TheCoveted is on the 4th place already). TheCoveted's ranks are up in the clouds because you've been talking about it so much!
It's not just about the traffic. The most important thing is that tens of thousands of people saw TheCoveted. And possibly liked it. And possibly decided to visit it again. So people who are #teamjennine actually promoted TheCoveted and actively helped them attract new readers.
This is not what we really want, do we?
I think it's incredibly important to speak loudly about injustice. However, I also think there's enough about this situation online already in the sense that when someone googles TheCoveted, they'll undoubtedly come across this atrocity.
I propose that we stop giving TheCoveted the attention it doesn't deserve. Stop linking to it, tweeting about it and mentioning it in posts. Don't visit the site. Behave as if it doesn't exist.
Dear Jennine, I'll keep my fingers crossed this situation resolves well for you.
More comments on The Coveted vs. The Coveted:
Copyright Infringement: The Coveted vs. The Coveted by Beautifully Invisible
Blog Wars: The-Coveted.com vs. TheCoveted.com Naming Controversy by Racked
The Coveted Is The Selby For Closets by Refinery29
Great post. As a proud member of #teamjennine, I can hope for the best. I suspect there's some deep pockets behind the uncoveted, and they are hoping to buy their way in. Sigh.
Not only has Jennine inspired me personally with her community and brand development, she has shown by example how far we can go as individuals with the support of a community. She taught me that by her example, and as an IFB member the knowledge shared there has been invaluable and I'll never forget it.
this is really lame, I have to admit I was unaware of this controversy, but I for one will not even dignify those moronic copy cats with a visit! Go Jennine!
I didn't know about it till today either. I'm afraid I'm mostly only looking at designs and styling, ignoring everything else.. but when I did read about this, I did the #teamjennin tweet but I'm certainly not going to put the other site's name anywhere on the net. What they do is simply discusting.
But it's good to know who they are. The names of the founders and the site adress. Just in case we stumble upon one of them on the net. Then we will know they don't deserve our attention..
I hope for Jennine that this issue will be resoved to her satisfaction asap.
xx
Tali
I'm sure they're loving the bad publicity. But people are wrong about there being no such thing as bad publicity. It will come back to haunt them.
And their reasoning is so ridiculous. If I'd done a basic Google search before starting my company and found out that another Wendy Brandes had a jewelry company, I would have picked a different name for my company rather than use my own name and create confusion. Easy enough!
OMG but it does not surprise me. I suspect that 1. They did this as a preemptive strike to drive down the price they want to pay to buy out her blog and be exclusive with the name "thecoveted" (and you'll see that they probably already bought up all related domain names that they quote in their letter), 2. They know that this is a clear cut blackmail of an individual who can not equal their lawyer power and even though they are perfectly aware that they are in the wrong, they count on financial exhaustion (because I bet their lawyers are very good at driving up the opposing side's bills with legal paperwork) 3. The ridiculously short period of time quoted in the legal letter to her just acts to coerce her to act quickly under duress and threats of malicious prosecution.
Unfortunately, legal battles like this take years, and I know people who won against serious offenders of copyright (all major corporations against young and initially amateur artists) and in the end it was resolved with hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages awarded to the wronged party. But it took 3-4 years.
Business is cut-throat unethical, unfortunately, and my heart goes out to her. I hope she can win agains this.
In any case, bad karma and fruits of the poisoned tree, so their project will definitely fail miserably sooner or later. They are just to high and greedy to se that now, but they'll get their comeuppance (small consolation but still...)
I agree SO MUCH about karma in this case. I have this tingling feeling there's no way their project will end up as huge as they wanted. Maybe not fail per se, but definitely not as successful.
It makes me so sad that someone could think of something so ruthlessly mean, let alone put it into action. Major cold shower. :(
With due respect, I think we should continue to talk about this in as many forums as possible.
1. Coveted2 obviously has a big PR budget and industry connections. The less we talk about their asshole behavior in regards to naming, the more you will only see stories about so and so's closet, and how "OMFGLOL I looooove this site, it's soooo original that someone looked at the Selby and decided to do it for clothes!!!! How awesome is it that people who work at fashion magazines have fabulous designer clothes?" type comments and tweets. Before this, I did like the idea, but they haven't cured cancer here.
2. I suggest the following:
- on Twitter, track all responses to their account (@coveteddotcom), politely respond to the person explaining that you love fashion too, but you don't like them infringing on Jennine's brand. Link to a story explaining the controversy. For every tweet about how OMFGLOL amazing!!! they are, there needs to be at least one about how WTF? their response to the naming has been
- on Facebook, reply to their updates with similar comments. Again, be polite - don't call them names, don't insult them or give them any ammunition to threaten Jennine with. Stick to what they've done, which is insulting all on its own.
On Facebook they will probably delete any posts you make. Keep posting, and keep replying to their posts and other peoples posts until they're forced to stand up and face this in a more honest way. Make their PR earn that check by having to constantly sort through responses that WILL NOT GO AWAY until they grow a backbone and stop treating this as some "little" blogger issue (my interpretation).
- Contact the people who've appeared on the site, using the contact links on their websites. Tell them that while you enjoyed seeing their personal style choices, you do not support infringement on a blogger without industry connections and a PR budget.
- Erin Kleinberg's contact information from her website is erin@erinkleinberg.com, her press representative is eglass@theglobeshowroom.com
Send an email expressing your disappointment in the way she is handling the naming controversy. Do not use personal insults, do not call Erin or any of her partners names. Goodness knows they haven't been, but you keep it classy.
This is such an excellent point, they seem to have accomplished what they might just have set out to achieve in the first place...
To be honest I was unaware of both sites until this controversy popped up so in essence the bad publicity as at least gained them instant attention from a bunch of people who would have never known about them. Even if it is negative, what do they say about press again?
Anyway I think it's a huge shame that they have the cheek to take the name I even saw the reply that their lawyer sent back to Jennies lawyer basically saying stop talking about us or we'll sue. What a joke.
Blog:www.arashmazinani.com
Twitter:@arashmazinani
Oh, Eva, I didn't know!
I ran into the "new" coveted, and I also quite liked it. But now I hate them!
I mean, this is so unfair!! I'm definitely pro Jennine, thank you for warning us.
I agree - the site has a nice concept. Too bad they had to spoil everything with the name.
It's a tricky situation - stop talking about it, or keep talking about it? I see what you are saying, and actually agree with your points, but at some point in time we have to take a stand. This could happen to anyone. Where do we draw the line?
The fact of the matter is, the existence of The UN-Coveted is causing confusion in the fashion marketplace. They are infringing on an established trademark and brand, and profiting from the success of that brand. And - to put it plainly - they are totally screwing Jennine over.
You mention the increased Alexa ranking for the site, and I agree a large part of it might be due to the increased attention coming from the controversy. But a lot of it is also due to the publicity they have garnered for their site. A lot has to do with the traffic they are generating from people LOOKING FOR JENNINE'S site. That is how they initially gained MY traffic. That is what led me to write my post back on the 24th. I couldn't believe it.
They want us to be quiet because they want to squash the bad publicity. Too late, it is out there. I can't in good faith remove all the links to their site that are in my post - to be fair I have to include some. But I also removed some. And I for one am going to keep talking about it until Jennine tells me to be quiet because my voice is already out there anyway. And I think - really - others should to. Jennine wants to be notified when others write posts about this issue so she can add them to her own - I think that speaks volumes.
Thank you for writing thing. Every day I read or hear something about it, and it makes me SO angry, so livid. Jennine and I have been friends for years now, and to think someone would so shamelessly take advantage of her big heart and community spirit angers me.
Totally agreew ith you!
So true. Someone should take a screenshot so any curious parties can look without supporting their rise in rank.