Dance and Play SUCKS

Boycott a bully dancewear company who abuses the law!

Dance and Play (danceandplay.com.au) is an Australian dancewear company who uses threats to silence those it disagrees with.

Trademark law in the United States has a well established concept of fair use built into it). Dance and Play threatens others who use the phrase "dance and play" in a legitimate way, unrelated to their business of selling girls dance equipment.

Trademarks are "any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof . . . used by a person . . . to identify and distinguish his or her goods . . . from those manufactured and sold by others and to indicate the source of the goods, even if that source is unknown." (source)
A search of literary works reveals the phrase "dance and play" being used as early as the 1600s! A Google search reveals almost a million of more recent legitimate usages. Despite the fact that this phrase can and is used in many ways, Dance and Play feels it necessary to threaten others who it finds objectionable. Stand up against a bully who perverts what the legal system was created for to threaten others. Boycott Dance and Play!

An Actual Threat (sent from [email protected])

I am the registered owner of the trademark danceandplay. You have a user using this name on your forum which is in breach of it. It will need to be removed immediately to prevent action being taken.
D Brand (trademark owner).

An Open Dialog

If Dance and Play wants to apologize for the way they acted, all that is needed is to send an audio apology to saysorry@getdare.com. We will then consider removing this page. Had Dance and Play been polite in their first e-mail to us this would not be necessary.