Here's the thing. As I wondered what my topic for today would be, I checked my email and discovered no fewer than three copyright/trademark infringing messages from respectable people who ought to know better.
Some two-word (or three word) combinations of common words probably should never have qualified for a trademark in the first place. That's a whole other discussion... that might make mention of billionaire Donald Trump, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, Paris Hilton, Homer Simpson version of "Duh!" (we can all say "Duh!" still, but not the version with a different vowel and an apostrophe) Justin Bieber (one word repeated many times) and many others.... including Facebook.
According to this blog, http://blog.dictionary.com/facebooktrademark/ Facebook has registered trademarks for words such as "face", "wall", "like" (in specific contexts, no doubt) and may be trying to find a back door way to claim an unregistered trademark of "book".... probably as a suffix to any website name.
But I digress:
"Don't even think about advertising a SUPER BOWL party ...www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=dffa905a-694b-4cc0-998b...
"If you are planning something, just remember: do not use “Super Bowl” by itself or in conjunction with other words or terms in any commercial promotions of any kind including your own events, third-party events, contests, games, product promotions, or sales. You just can’t do it." This is the advice of law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC to be found here:
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=dffa905a-694b-4cc0-998b-5065dfaf1a24
They conclude, "unless you have inked a licensing agreement with the NFL to use SUPER BOWL for any commercial purpose, consider yourself warned not to do so. “THAT BIG GAME SUNDAY” will have to do."
Enjoy the game!
Rowena Cherry.
Space Snark (TM)
Posts
There's a lady in the Baltimore area who owns the Hon Cafe, and she tried to trademark the term "Hon." Since that's a standard Baltimorese term, the public was up in arms against her. She had to back-pedal (as I remember the story) and stress that she was trademarking it only in the context of her own business.
ReplyDelete