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Back in September 2018 we emailed Elementor ltd as per their trademark instructions asking if we could purchase some domain names which included "Elementor" in them to create a support forum, after all the facebook group just wasnt for everyone.
The same day we got a reply, from Elementor ltd saying they would love us to create a forum to help support the community and approved our request, wishing us luck and even replied after it was created saying that it looked great, giving us some pointers such as footer disclaimers and offering to add us to their up and coming ambassadors list etc ( Bearing in mind that back in 2018 having their own forum was not in thier business plan ). We even made it clear, we aimed to make money from affiliate, selling advertising or indeed selling the forum at a later date which they didnt disagree with.
So we went down the correct procedure, making sure we were granted permission before registering elementorforum.com and creating the forum. Thats been fine all this time, the forum has been growing slowly on its own with a few helpers along the way, we've seen other forums disapear as a result of Elementor ltd forcing their hand, we assume they didnt get permission like we did and as a result shut down rather quickly.
Fast forward March 2021, Elementor Ltd affiliate team tried to ban us from their affiliate program for infringement, we explained and showed examples of our granted permission to use the trademark, they were content with the info provided and no longer bothered us, also providing affiliate payouts ( nothing noteworthy ) after said email confirming that we were still in their affiliate program ( we still are ).
Tuesday 30th December 2021, we got an email demanding we took the forum down and threatening legal action, although the letter seemed like it was written quickly and hadnt been checked ( probably in hope that sending it on 30th December that we would all still be on Christmas holiday making it more difficult for us to respond to the time sensitive deadline they had set ),even our brand name the letter was addressed to was spelt wrong, no clear indication of the specific offences or finer details they were claiming which would be required by law, if Elementor ltd were a UK company etc. It asked us remove all content from the domain and to stop users from using the site within 7 days.
The part I really felt was discusting was the fact they not only threatened legal action ( Which i believe we would have stood a excellent chance of winning considering we still hold all email threads relating to the approval of usage in the 2018 conversation ),but they also threatened to revoke an agency licence ( grandfathered at the $150 renewal cost for 1000 sites ) which our agency held since 2018.....a licence which isn't and never has been connected to this forum.
They claimed users are telling them we are "selling licences" which is against their TOS. Which couldnt be further from the truth and purely speculative I suspect, out of our 1000 site licence we use less than 100 sites, alot of those on demo domains or staging areas, none of the clients on the licence were ever retained via this forum as we dont openly advertise the agency here other than some descreet links in the footer, infact most of the sites on the licence are clients we've held for 5 - 10 years and we've introduced them to Elementor. We believe this wording was an "angle" because they know they gave us permission to use the trademark, but now have their own forum so ours conflicts with their latest business model.
Obviously we emailed them back within hours, explaining all of the above, even stating that if they felt the forum was better managed by them, they were welcome to make us an offer to buy the domains or site. We've not had a response to our reply, given the fact they only gave us 7 days, we didnt want to risk losing the licence our agency holds.
This has made us question how ethical Elementor Ltd really is, how they treat professional agreements and indeed data held. In an attempt to retain our Agency licence and continue to use elementor for some activities, we took the decision to rebrand the forum to keep the peace, as the forum doesnt earn any money to warrent our time fighting it.
It was a matter of picking what battles to fight that are worth while our time, big company vs small company throwing their weight around etc etc etc.
So welcome, to the Wordpress Support forum with an Elementor Focus. Use the forum for all your Wordpress and Elementor questions, if you need further sections added for other topics or indeed page builders please let us know as we now cover a much wider topic matter, although still specilising in Elementor.
The same day we got a reply, from Elementor ltd saying they would love us to create a forum to help support the community and approved our request, wishing us luck and even replied after it was created saying that it looked great, giving us some pointers such as footer disclaimers and offering to add us to their up and coming ambassadors list etc ( Bearing in mind that back in 2018 having their own forum was not in thier business plan ). We even made it clear, we aimed to make money from affiliate, selling advertising or indeed selling the forum at a later date which they didnt disagree with.
So we went down the correct procedure, making sure we were granted permission before registering elementorforum.com and creating the forum. Thats been fine all this time, the forum has been growing slowly on its own with a few helpers along the way, we've seen other forums disapear as a result of Elementor ltd forcing their hand, we assume they didnt get permission like we did and as a result shut down rather quickly.
Fast forward March 2021, Elementor Ltd affiliate team tried to ban us from their affiliate program for infringement, we explained and showed examples of our granted permission to use the trademark, they were content with the info provided and no longer bothered us, also providing affiliate payouts ( nothing noteworthy ) after said email confirming that we were still in their affiliate program ( we still are ).
Tuesday 30th December 2021, we got an email demanding we took the forum down and threatening legal action, although the letter seemed like it was written quickly and hadnt been checked ( probably in hope that sending it on 30th December that we would all still be on Christmas holiday making it more difficult for us to respond to the time sensitive deadline they had set ),even our brand name the letter was addressed to was spelt wrong, no clear indication of the specific offences or finer details they were claiming which would be required by law, if Elementor ltd were a UK company etc. It asked us remove all content from the domain and to stop users from using the site within 7 days.
The part I really felt was discusting was the fact they not only threatened legal action ( Which i believe we would have stood a excellent chance of winning considering we still hold all email threads relating to the approval of usage in the 2018 conversation ),but they also threatened to revoke an agency licence ( grandfathered at the $150 renewal cost for 1000 sites ) which our agency held since 2018.....a licence which isn't and never has been connected to this forum.
They claimed users are telling them we are "selling licences" which is against their TOS. Which couldnt be further from the truth and purely speculative I suspect, out of our 1000 site licence we use less than 100 sites, alot of those on demo domains or staging areas, none of the clients on the licence were ever retained via this forum as we dont openly advertise the agency here other than some descreet links in the footer, infact most of the sites on the licence are clients we've held for 5 - 10 years and we've introduced them to Elementor. We believe this wording was an "angle" because they know they gave us permission to use the trademark, but now have their own forum so ours conflicts with their latest business model.
Obviously we emailed them back within hours, explaining all of the above, even stating that if they felt the forum was better managed by them, they were welcome to make us an offer to buy the domains or site. We've not had a response to our reply, given the fact they only gave us 7 days, we didnt want to risk losing the licence our agency holds.
This has made us question how ethical Elementor Ltd really is, how they treat professional agreements and indeed data held. In an attempt to retain our Agency licence and continue to use elementor for some activities, we took the decision to rebrand the forum to keep the peace, as the forum doesnt earn any money to warrent our time fighting it.
It was a matter of picking what battles to fight that are worth while our time, big company vs small company throwing their weight around etc etc etc.
So welcome, to the Wordpress Support forum with an Elementor Focus. Use the forum for all your Wordpress and Elementor questions, if you need further sections added for other topics or indeed page builders please let us know as we now cover a much wider topic matter, although still specilising in Elementor.
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