likelihood of confusion, (USPTO definition) where the image looks enough like the trademark belonging to someone else.
Y'see, the good people who bring us SnuggieWorld
and some other, um, products, have claimed trademarks for two URLs.
So, let's see about that.
As search at the United States Patents and Trademarks office shows up some interesting data:
Both ASSEENONTV and ASSEENONTV.COM show up as abandoned trademarks while the phrase SeenOnTV.com comes up empty.
I'm gonna send this post to a couple of attorneys to see if they have any comment. Stay tuned.
2 comments:
You really don't know if a trademark is alive or truly abandoned or dead just by looking at the US Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO's) website.
See, a trademark is actually alive as long as it is used properly as the identifier of a source of goods or services in interstate commerce. That's not something that the USPTO's site tracks in any really meaningful way. The USPTO's site tracks whether the owner of a registered mark has alleged that the mark is in use in interstate commerce and paid the fee for continued registration of the mark (this fee is due 5 years after registration, 10 years after registration, and every 10 years thereafter). If so, the USPTO's site keeps the mark designated as "Live." That doesn't say that the mark is not still in use in interstate commerce if the mark is designated as "abandoned" or "dead." Those terms on that site simply indicate that the mark has not had its fees paid or the time for response to a USPTO Office Action has passed for a mark that is applied for but not yet registered. The mark itself may be in use in interstate commerce, and its owner may be blissfully unaware of its expired or undeveloped registration status.
If the mark is not registered (or has expired), the use of ® with the mark is improper; ® designates a mark that is registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office; ™ designates all other marks (including those that are registered with a state trademark registrar).
The purpose of a trademark or service mark is to identify the source of the goods or service in the stream of commerce. For example, a computer with an apple that has a bite taken out of it is clearly an Apple computer; a car with a logo consisting of a circle divided into sky-blue-and-white quarters is a BMW; SCOTCH, when applied to cellophane tape, is a product of Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.; you get the idea.
Without knowing a LOT more, I can't even begin to speak to the question of whether the use RoasterBoy cites of AS SEEN ON TV is proper or an infringement. The use may be licensed, which would make the use proper whether the mark is registered or not. I can say that if the mark is not registered, the infringement (if such exists) has fewer remedies in court than if the mark were registered.
Nancy -
Thanks for clarifying the meaning of live and dead on the USPTO's site.
So, as I suspected, the use of the registration mark on their seenontv.com URL is improper.
Meanwhile, the local attorneys may have been having a bit of fun by using that mark, but may also have exposed themselves to action from the AsSeenOnTV.com folks. The latter's terms and conditions indicate that they claim usage rights for their logo -
Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with AsSeenOnTV, nothing in the Terms of Use gives you a right to use any of AsSeenOnTV´s trade names, trade marks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features.
Post a Comment