For the last few weeks I’ve been heavy in thought, about the current status of my website, about where I want to go with it, and – mostly – about its name.

You see, I received a letter from the lawyers representing the Mindful Living Network, LLC threatening to sue me for my use of the name Everyday Mindful Living.

It seems that one Dr. Kathleen Hall—and her associated companies, Mindful Living Network, LLC—have set themselves up as gatekeepers for and sole proprietors of the term “Mindful Living.”

Trademarks are designed to protect a brand, but only for terms that are specific to that brand. As we all know, the term “mindful living” has a long history of use – dating from well before Dr. Kathleen Hall’s trademark. The term has been used in a variety of contemplative religious practices, particularly in Buddhism. A simple Google search turned up 3,620,000 results (including the Institute for Mindful Living, Center for Mindful Living, Mindful Living Health Expo, and so on). A word used in the descriptive sense millions of times is, I am told, not defensible as a trademark. Mindful living does seem to be a term that is part of the public lexicon.

When I received the letter, I did what most people do when they receive a letter from a lawyer threatening a lawsuit: I picked up my phone and started calling people.

I called my husband. We’re in this life adventure together. He needed to be the first to know, and I needed his perspective and support.

I called the friend of mine who encouraged me to set up the blog: “Guess what crazy thing just happened!”

I contacted a friend who is a lawyer, who assured me I had done nothing wrong: They can’t own three words in the English language in any order – that’s not how a trademark works. My friend then advised me to contact an attorney who specifically practices trademark law.

Finally, I contacted a friend who is really good at being hilariously snarky and is one of the most brilliant people I know, because I needed to be able to laugh at the situation. If he would have written this post, it would be a lot funnier. It would also make fun of the huge number of “®” signs that appeared in the letter, as well as point out the blatant discrepancy between the language on their website (e.g., “When you think positive thoughts you can produce relaxing, healing chemicals. Chronically thinking negative thoughts affects your memory and can make you anxious or depressed”) and the “We will crush you with our mighty lawyers!” implication of their demand letter.

I then undertook a bunch of research. I found out everything I could about the Mindful Living Network, LLC. (I had never heard of them before they contacted me.) They do, indeed, hold a number of trademarks, including one for “Mindful Living.” One of the other things I’ve learned about them is that they file a lot of lawsuits and, I’m guessing, probably send out tons of threatening letters like the one I received.

With this knowledge in hand, I contacted three trademark attorneys. All of them assured me I had done nothing wrong. I was told that I had a decent case, and would likely prevail in a court of law. Yet they also told me that it would take lot of time and money to get to that point.

I am a small business. I don’t have any advertising on my site. This blog does not make a profit. In fact, it costs me more to run than I’ve made through running it. From my perspective, this felt like a case of a big business trying to squash their perceived/potential competition before it can even get off the ground.

After much thought, I decided that it would not be a wise financial move for my household to pursue holding onto the name Everyday Mindful Living in court, even if I were likely to win. I have far better ways to spend my time. Finally, and most significantly, I found myself unable to rectify my commitment to thoughtful, intentional, and indeed, MINDFUL living with an embrace of litigation. I decided that fighting in court is not how I want to go about my life. When I think about where and how I want to channel my passions, spending quality time with lawyers is not on that list.

Their demand of me is that I give up my site name, claiming that they own the rights to it. So I am changing my website’s name to Everyday Intentional Living.

While my site name will change, my content will not. Please continue to join me on this journey toward living our lives thoughtfully and with care. Whether we call it mindfulness, intentionality, or conscious living, it all comes back to making deliberate choices within and about our lives.

What choice would you make in this situation? Would you take on Big Mindful Living in court?

Also, because changing my website’s primary domain is a difficult transition for a technological neophyte like myself, please let me know if you encounter any trouble when trying to use this site: links that don’t work, pictures that seem to be missing, content that shows as unavailable, and so on. I appreciate your help!