Posted on July 4, 2008 - by Justin Hartman
Regator.com steals our brand – coincidence?
I’m not sure how I feel about this.
Regator.com went into private beta today and I picked it up via this Techcrunch article. They’ve also got great exposure on ReadWriteWeb and even Mashable.
These guys are a blog aggregator that not only use the Afrigator crocodile, similar domain name and colour scheme and I have to feel this is a little more than a coincidence.
There is little doubt that Mike, Stii, Mark and myself will need to speak to our legal team to find out what action we can take on this.
What do you guys think?
UPDATE: I’ve had a long chat with Scott from Regator and I’m now convinced it was a coincidence. Please see my updated post here.
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I am the MD and co-founder of 
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July 4, 2008
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Wow, that does look very familiar now doesn’t it…
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July 4, 2008
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Why didnt RRW bring it up and link to the Afrigator piece they did… in my opinion its a shocker.. same niche, same mascot, same colour scheme, similar name… jeeezus.
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July 4, 2008
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Yip, get legal advice asap. This is not cool!
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July 4, 2008
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No, that’s way, way too close for comfort. I’d pursue with all due haste – things will probably be a lot tougher when they finally go out of Beta.
What makes this really fishy is that they registered the domain anonymously. There seems to be a mostly-authentic-looking MySpace page, but we all know how easily that could be faked.
Maybe it’s just his unhealthy obsession with alligators? Lol…
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July 4, 2008
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Eish… although i do not agree with this, I doubt there is any legal action that can be taken. The best thing to do is contact them up and talk to them, try to win them over, if that doesnt work, just keep spreading the word, and many many people will refuse to support them.
I am sure some amicable agreement can be reached out of court.
Always go the friendly way first this is the web
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July 4, 2008
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[...] I’m just having a bad day, but it wasn’t even Justin or I that originally picked up on the similarity(ties). It’s all over Muti thanks to Robin [...]
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July 4, 2008
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Please keep us posted on what develops here – this could be a very interesting case. I had to face something similar in the past but cyberlaw was a nonentity in this country back then. After that, I made sure to register all brands!
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July 4, 2008
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That’s a nasty one, but don’t think there’s too much you’ll be able to do here, and the fact that TechCrunch picked them up they’ll be flying in no time, I tend to agree with Simone, you guys must now just use teh intarwebz and make as much noise as possible and cry foul everywhere so people can know what’s going on
And anyways how much is lawyers gonna cost you to make an IP infringement case in an overseas jurisdiction…?
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July 4, 2008
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Hmmm, can you believe it. Seems a bit ridiculous, and although we can make a lot of noise locally, I think that the point needs to be brought to the attention of the international market in some big way.
Good luck with the lawyers, gents. It’s worth the fight!
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July 4, 2008
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[...] Justin and Mike both speak out against this and I think it’s important that we all try and add our voices to this sort of rubbish. [...]
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July 4, 2008
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[...] Hartman – Regator.com steals our brand – [...]
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July 4, 2008
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Sue them!!
don’t even hesitate!
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July 4, 2008
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[...] is some more on this issue: Regator Looks Mighty Familiar – Mike Stopforth Regator.com steals our brand – coincidence? – Justin Hartman Shocking: Regator rip off Afrigator – Nic Haralambous Regator – Perfect example of how Africa gets [...]
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July 4, 2008
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I expressed my thoughts on this issue on Mike’s blog, however I feel compelled to point out that we have no alligators in Africa. Or in Aus for that matter.
Alligators are native to the US and China.
I don’t know if you have any recourse except to try be better than them.
When life gives you poop, make poop juice.
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July 4, 2008
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G’day Justin,
I am one of the co-founders of Regator.
We’re sorry you feel upset about this, but we had not even heard of afrigator until reading the comments everywhere. The reason we are called regator is because it a shortened form of agg-â€regator†(that and the domain was available). It seemed to make sense. The alligator made an obvious mascot and they are green so we chose a palate to match.
I can honestly say that it is pure coincidence… and we are sorry if we have offended anyone, let alone you and the guys who are behind afrigator. It was not our intent.
p.s. as for the myspace page, it is real. Also, the domain is registered privately because we work at our home and we didn’t want to have that everywhere. Nothing sinister, promise.
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July 4, 2008
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This is such bollocks, I’m not concerned about their reproduction of the aggregation services, that is not a novelty; my biggest concern is that they’ve copied your imagery, mascot and perhaps the name. Intellectual property unless patented is unfortunately open to anyone, and you’d be very hard up trying to sue them for that which must be frustrating!
Aussies appear not to have moved on from being a colony of criminals
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July 4, 2008
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The developer of Regator, Scott, has posted to Techcrunch stating that it is just a coincidence and apologising for it. It’s easy to see how this happened:
Both Afrigator and Regator derive their names from ‘Aggregator’. The noun hiding in that word is ‘gator’ – as in, Alli-gator. It seems obvious to me that both brands have jumped on this. I doubt there is anything more to it than that.
There is no reason not to believe the Regator guys – who are being very nice about this, considering the allegations being made against them by everybody with a blog in SA.
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July 4, 2008
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@All – thanks for your support and passion to this post. I value every bit of it you’ve given us, it’s been an eye opener for me.
@Simon – I’m inclined to agree with you and I have personally sent Scott an email earlier. I see Scott has commented on this post and I’m hopeful we can chat about this and other stuff soon.
I do think however that we need to reserve judgement on the matter until we’ve actually seen regator live. Maybe Scott will give me beta access so I can make up my mind finally.
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
Wow, that does look very familiar now doesn't it…
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
Why didnt RRW bring it up and link to the Afrigator piece they did… in my opinion its a shocker.. same niche, same mascot, same colour scheme, similar name… jeeezus.
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
Yip, get legal advice asap. This is not cool!
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
No, that's way, way too close for comfort. I'd pursue with all due haste – things will probably be a lot tougher when they finally go out of Beta.
What makes this really fishy is that they registered the domain anonymously. There seems to be a mostly-authentic-looking MySpace page, but we all know how easily that could be faked.
Maybe it's just his unhealthy obsession with alligators? Lol…
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
Eish… although i do not agree with this, I doubt there is any legal action that can be taken. The best thing to do is contact them up and talk to them, try to win them over, if that doesnt work, just keep spreading the word, and many many people will refuse to support them.
I am sure some amicable agreement can be reached out of court.
Always go the friendly way first this is the web
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
Please keep us posted on what develops here – this could be a very interesting case. I had to face something similar in the past but cyberlaw was a nonentity in this country back then. After that, I made sure to register all brands!
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
That's a nasty one, but don't think there's too much you'll be able to do here, and the fact that TechCrunch picked them up they'll be flying in no time, I tend to agree with Simone, you guys must now just use teh intarwebz and make as much noise as possible and cry foul everywhere so people can know what's going on
And anyways how much is lawyers gonna cost you to make an IP infringement case in an overseas jurisdiction…?
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
Hmmm, can you believe it. Seems a bit ridiculous, and although we can make a lot of noise locally, I think that the point needs to be brought to the attention of the international market in some big way.
Good luck with the lawyers, gents. It's worth the fight!
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
Sue them!!
don't even hesitate!
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
I expressed my thoughts on this issue on Mike's blog, however I feel compelled to point out that we have no alligators in Africa. Or in Aus for that matter.
Alligators are native to the US and China.
I don't know if you have any recourse except to try be better than them.
When life gives you poop, make poop juice.
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
[...] your thing then why not join my email list by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by.Earlier today I posted this in which I argued that Regator may have stolen Afrigator’s [...]
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July 5, 2008
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[...] web aggregator services, the South African blogosphere temporarily experienced a little uproar when Justin Hartman, one of the co-founders of Afrigator.com, blogged about a new RSS aggregator service … that received some press and buzz over at TechCrunch , Mashable and ReadWriteWeb. Justin and the [...]
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July 4, 2008
Permalink
G'day Justin,
I am one of the co-founders of Regator.
We’re sorry you feel upset about this, but we had not even heard of afrigator until reading the comments everywhere. The reason we are called regator is because it a shortened form of agg-â€regator†(that and the domain was available). It seemed to make sense. The alligator made an obvious mascot and they are green so we chose a palate to match.
I can honestly say that it is pure coincidence… and we are sorry if we have offended anyone, let alone you and the guys who are behind afrigator. It was not our intent.
p.s. as for the myspace page, it is real. Also, the domain is registered privately because we work at our home and we didn't want to have that everywhere. Nothing sinister, promise.
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
This is such bollocks, I'm not concerned about their reproduction of the aggregation services, that is not a novelty; my biggest concern is that they've copied your imagery, mascot and perhaps the name. Intellectual property unless patented is unfortunately open to anyone, and you'd be very hard up trying to sue them for that which must be frustrating!
Aussies appear not to have moved on from being a colony of criminals
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
The developer of Regator, Scott, has posted to Techcrunch stating that it is just a coincidence and apologising for it. It's easy to see how this happened:
Both Afrigator and Regator derive their names from 'Aggregator'. The noun hiding in that word is 'gator' – as in, Alli-gator. It seems obvious to me that both brands have jumped on this. I doubt there is anything more to it than that.
There is no reason not to believe the Regator guys – who are being very nice about this, considering the allegations being made against them by everybody with a blog in SA.
Visit My Website
July 4, 2008
Permalink
@All – thanks for your support and passion to this post. I value every bit of it you've given us, it's been an eye opener for me.
@Simon – I'm inclined to agree with you and I have personally sent Scott an email earlier. I see Scott has commented on this post and I'm hopeful we can chat about this and other stuff soon.
I do think however that we need to reserve judgement on the matter until we've actually seen regator live. Maybe Scott will give me beta access so I can make up my mind finally.
Visit My Website
July 5, 2008
Permalink
[...] Sounds very much like Afrigator doesn’t it? or Amatomu for that matter. I’ve read a number of articles on Regator copying Afrigator and I have to say that’s it’s almost as [...]
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July 5, 2008
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[...] we were hit with this news about Regator.com, which appears to be a not-very-well disguised clone of SA’s own Afrigator.com [Justin, Mike, [...]
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July 7, 2008
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[...] to have had some mixed emotions and reactions about the whole issue, with some alleging ” a brand robbery” while others “revoking” the whole story . What a paradox ! …. Anyways, [...]
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July 6, 2009
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[...] in it’s name, it’s a total ripoff of the local Afrigator, right? Afrigator assumed as much, and just about the entire local tech community got angry at what must have been a very baffled [...]