Below you will find verbatim copied and unaltered from the Dervaes Family's website, urbanhomestead.org:

FYI URBAN HOMESTEAD TRADEMARK MATTER

Please find the “cease & desist”  phrase in this normal, professional and informative letter.   It’s a false, made up claim that people are jumping over themselves to make us look bad. DERVAES INSTITUTE Jules Dervaes, Presiding Officer 631 Cypress Avenue Pasadena, CA 91103 (626) 795-8400 dervaes@dervaesinstitute.org To Whom It May Concern: This notice is to inform you of important matters regarding the published works and/or brand names of Jules Dervaes and Dervaes Institute. We are extremely supportive of members of our online communities; fans of our websites, writings and photographs; and others who help to spread information regarding sustainable living. However, we must also guard against the unauthorized use or exploitation of our intellectual property for commercial gain. From the beginning, our work published online and in other media has been copyrighted and trademarked. We have now secured registered trademarks for certain unique names and images. By protecting our intellectual property we are better able to ensure that our work is presented accurately and contributes to our sustainable living projects and educational initiatives. As you may know, the Dervaes family has been practicing sustainable living in Pasadena, Calif., since 1985. Our work has been documented and shared online at www.urbanhomestead.org and other websites since 2001, receiving national and international media attention. Additionally, we produced an award-winning short documentary film about our project, called Homegrown Revolution, which has been featured at film festivals around the world and on Oprah’s 2009 Earth Day television special. Over the last 25 years, our family has created a wealth of intellectual property in the field of sustainable living. Through the Dervaes Institute, we have been committed to freely educating others about the practices and benefits of self-sufficiency. We realize that your use of Dervaes published words and/or trademarks may have been inadvertent. We are generally able to resolve any such uses without involving our legal counsel. This would require that you update your websites and articles to properly cite our works. For example, the writings of Jules Dervaes about sustainable living are original protected works in which Dervaes owns exclusive rights. Content from the Dervaes websites, including text and photographs, are also protected works. When using Dervaes materials, the proper way to go about it is as follows:

• Only use a small sample of our work in any single instance;
• Copy the portion used in its entirety – do not paraphrase or extract portions of images or paragraphs;
• Make it clear – by using quotation marks or different font size or color – that the Dervaes materials referenced are from another source;
• Include a prominent link or reference to the original source of the content used on a Dervaes website.

In addition, Dervaes Institute owns numerous trademarks which should be properly acknowledged if used. These protected names and images include the following registered trademarks:

• URBAN HOMESTEAD®
• URBAN HOMESTEADING®
• PATH TO FREEDOM®
• GROW THE FUTURE®
• HOMEGROWN REVOLUTION®
• FREEDOM GARDENS®
• LITTLE HOMESTEAD IN THE CITY® (pending)

• Also, THE TEN ELEMENTS OF URBAN HOMSTEADING copyright has been filed with the Library of Congress.

If your use of one of these phrases is not to specifically identify products or services from the Dervaes Institute, then it would be proper to use generic terms to replace the registered trademark you are using. For example, when discussing general homesteading or other people’s projects, they should be referred to using terms such as ‘modern homesteading,’ ‘urban sustainability projects,’ or similar descriptions. When using a phrase listed above to refer to the work of the Dervaes Institute, proper trademark usage should include the proper trademark notice [®], use the protected phrase in all capital letters, and note in close proximity that the term is a protected trademark of Dervaes Institute. Thank you in advance for respecting our legally protected intellectual property rights. If you have been supportive of our ten-year online work in the past, we appreciate very much your continued support. If you have any questions regarding the use of Dervaes materials or trademarks, please contact us at (626) 795-8400. We would be glad to provide you with more details. Regards, Jules Dervaes Dervaes Institute