Hot answers tagged trademark
16
What would your grounds for challenging be? They currently have a related product on the market with the same name as the one you plan to use in the future. Owning a domain name doesn't usually grant you any real protection or status. More importantly, and I say this as an attorney, why would you want to spend your startup money on litigation? If you haven't ...
14
Short overall answer: You are heading toward intentional copyright and trademark infringement.
Responding to your specific Qs:
By copying the rules (by which I mean the written rules that the user reads, rather than the mechanics of the game) you will be committing copyright infringement. Yes, there are many Monopoly licensees - please see the Wikipedia ...
9
In general, you acquire trademark rights by use in commerce and not merely filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office. So those who are first to use, even if they have not filed to protect the same yet, have priority of rights in their marks (i.e. You!). If $350 is a lot of money for you right now, then I would hold off, otherwise go for it. It's my ...
9
Unfortunately your question is way too vague, each case is unique. Also you didn't originally say which country you are in.
There are a couple of facts which should be considered (assuming USA):
1) Do they have a federal trademark? You should get a copy on-like for free from the Patent & Trademark Office. They may be bluffing?
2) Does their trademark ...
8
I agree that the quickest, most cost-effective approach is likely to be invoking the UDRP.
For a summary of what the complainant must prove, please see "How to Defeat a Cybersquatter".
Disclaimer: This post does not constitute legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship.
6
Everyone here will preface with "consult a lawyer," which you should, but generally speaking trademarks are limited to the scope of business.
For example a local business (restaurant, laundromat) could collide with a business in another state because they don't overlap.
Or if the two business are in completely different verticals (one agriculture, the ...
6
In the U.S. you may claim a trademark by right of first use and using the "TM" identifier. Registration with the PTO is not required to claim a trademark, but it does give you a number of important additional legal rights and privileges including the right to use the ® symbol and ability to litigate a trademark dispute in federal court.
See the highly ...
6
The major milestones for you to track occur in the fifth and ninth year after your initial registration. Between the fifth and sixth year, you are required to file a “Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use” which is a sworn statement by the owner asserting that you are still using your trademark in commerce.
Alternatively, if you are not using your ...
6
Open source refers to a copyright license on the source code of the Android operating system. A trademark protects the word "Android". So Google allows you to copy the source code and build any device you want with the Android OS, but won't let you call it Android unless you acknowledge that they own the trademark.
They do that in part because they'll lose ...
6
What you mean by 'allowed'? I don't think there is any law against using a semicolon or any other special character in a business name. As you point out, many dot.coms do. And there's Yahoo! with an exclamation point. And the Toy'R'Us example already cited.
I'd say that if the semicolon helps accomplish your intent, I don't see why not. Of course, you ...
6
I would wait until you know your startup is going to make it. Once you know for sure that it's going to work then it's a good idea to protect yourself. If you still don't know if you have something and you're not profitable yet then I think it's too soon.
Only you know what threshold means "yes, this worked, we have made it". I would do it then though.
...
5
Only you can determine whether you should or should not register a trademark. :-) There are several factors to consider in this, some of which are the level of investment in the brand, the SEO value, and how 'big' a deal this startup is for you personally -- is it just a side project, or something you think could potentially change your life completely...
...
5
I wrote an answer to a similar question over on Quora, but here's the main point:
In the United States, there's a giant piece of legislation called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. This contains all of the basic legal concepts that are used to punish digital copyright infringment.
While drafting the bill, legislators recognized that there are many ...
5
The 'TM' means that they are claiming common-law rights in the mark -- the idea is that people will so identify the word 'surface' with Microsoft that it would be unfair to allow anybody else to come out with a 'Surface' tablet.
Microsoft has probably already applied for a registered trademark on the name -- it just takes a few months for those to be ...
4
You have some good pointers by jimg already; see his links in the previous discussion on this site.
Just to be clear, your Hong Kong trademarks protect you only in the jurisdiction they're registered in. Given Hong Kong's unique recent history, I do not know if that's the "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China" area, or ...
4
Look up eBay vs. PerfumeBay.com
Perfume bay had a protracted battle to keep their name, but ultimately lost. They sold perfume - in no way a direct eBay competitor. However, eBay argued, and won to a significant degree, that by virtue of PerfumeBay (a) using the internet to market its products, and (b) with the inclusion of "Bay" in their name, PerfumeBay ...
4
It doesn't really matter whether they can go after you legally and succeed at stopping you in court. The question you have to ask yourself is, "Does my startup have the money to waste on legal fees defending an action that I know in advance will cause legal problems."
4
Copyright is automatic. There's nothing to do there.
Registering a trademark is also not strictly necessary because common law rights to a trademark attach through actual use. However, registering does confer certain benefits, but I suspect it's early days for that. It's probably a good idea to do some internet searching to make sure that you're not ...
4
Note that every country has different trademark laws, so even if this is acceptable in your country (I assume you are from the US) you may find your business to be illegal if you ever open an office in another country or relocate.
Also, even if it's ok from trademark law point of view, there are probably many other laws that can be used by them to sue you ...
4
If the owner of brandX.com has infringed on your trademark with bad faith intent, i.e. they are using it in the same goods/services class, then you may have rightful cause to obtain the domain under ICANN UDRP arbitration or, if you live in the United States, to file suit in federal court under the terms of the ACPA. I highly suggest you review both of the ...
4
In the USA:
If you register a trademark, you don't necessarily have to register the company name, although it is normally done. A product or service name is likely to be different from the company name.
A trademark can be for the name of a product, a company name, a logo, or some combination of these.
A trademark protects you from other people using marks ...
4
Sometimes when a company sends a C&D letter like the one you got they are willing to fight hard to get you to stop and sometimes they are not willing to fight hard but are hoping you will get scared and run away. That is the nature of the game, and the only way to find out is to play the game for a bit.
You seem to be willing to spend a little money on ...
4
Trademarked words are filed in all capital letters so an upper or lower case "a" does not make a difference. More generally, any variations of a mark that would be confused with the original would be trademark infringement so adding/changing a letter or two or punctuation is probably not enough of a difference in most cases.
Alain's answer is correct, but ...
4
I have filed multiple trademarks in the US by myself without a lawyer, it is not particularly difficult.
My advise would be to stay away from "edge cases" where there is high likelihood of a problem such trying to trademark a hamburger as a "MacTripple" (McDonalds has the McDouble) or a soft drink as "Koke" (CocaCola).
You need to also understand that if ...
4
My understanding is that trademarks must be unique in some way.
A trademark may be eligible for registration, or registrable, if it
performs the essential trademark function, and has distinctive
character.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_distinctiveness
Let's be honest here.. you want to trademark a triangle. Unless you add some ...
3
This is not really a trademark issue. Your activity isn't likely to cause consumer confusion over what the trademark is for so they can't sue you for damages on the grounds of a trademark violation.
Copyright infringement, on the other hand, is highly relevant. Commercial parody fair use has been upheld in courts for many cases but denied in others. Worth ...
3
I am not a lawyer, but fair use doesn't apply to commercial ventures.
That being said I don't think it's a trademark violation to mention other companies, as many many websites do those 'feature comparison' lists between themselves and competitors and I'd presume there would be a lot more companies suing each other if that was trademark infringement.
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