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Instagram trademark application for “GRAM”
- antoineMoPa 10y agoWhat are the consequences if this is accepted?
- evincarofautumn 10y agoNot a lawyer, but I’d guess that if a company releases a product in this jurisdiction, with “gram” in the name, and it falls into one of these categories: “Downloadable computer software for modifying and enabling transmission of images, audio-visual and video content; downloadable computer software for viewing and interacting with a feed of images, audio-visual and video content and associated text and data; computer software for social networking.” Then that company can be sued by Instagram for trademark infringement. It seems overly broad; I wonder how it would affect, say, Telegram.
- hvidgaard 10y agowrt. Telegram, wouldn't it be kinda like prior art?
- michaelmrose 10y agoPrior art isn't a trademark related word nor does it have meaning here.
- hvidgaard 10y agoHence I said "kinda like". It's not a patent, so of cource prior art makes no sense, but the equivalent for a trademark, whatever that is called.
- takingflac 10y agoTrademarks have to be maintained so there is no "kind of like" however the strength of the trademark is eroded a good bit for being a common word.
- nomercy400 10y agoOeh, I should trademark 'inter-' and '-net' and then profits. Sounds silly this 'gram' thing. 'Instagram' I can understand, but not just 'gram'.
- cordite 10y agoWe may have to call crackers that we take pictures of by a different name
- guitarbill 10y agoWe probably shouldn't allow common words to be individually trademarked, let alone SI units.
- awqrre 10y agoalphabet is another one... this is ridiculous
- thomaskcr 10y agoTechnology company named alphabet seems reasonably specific in my opinion. It's not like the Alphabet Farm is going to get shut down or you'll need to start writing "The Alphabet(tm) Song"
- awqrre 10y agoAlphabet is one common English word... how can that be specific?
- thomaskcr 10y agoBecause the trademark is for a specific category - there was already a company named Alphabet (with that trademark) owned by BMW and that didn't pose an issue to Google. You could start an alphabet plumbing or something. It's not like they own the word.
- StephenConnell 10y agoSo, do they own the word Google? Can you use that name in other categories? Google plumbing?
- tracker1 10y agoGoogle being a made up word is probably copyright and trademarked... and probably could be more broadly enforced.
- genbit 10y agogram - is a metric system unit of mass, can they trademark it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram
- bendykstra 10y agoTesla is a unit of magnetic field strength. Hertz is a unit of frequency. Siemens is a measure of electric conductance. Try to find an SI unit that isn't also a company or product. Trademarks aren't about owning a word, only about having exclusive use of it within a certain domain. If Instagram is successful, you will still be allowed to use the SI unit to quantify mass. You won't be able to market a competing product or service with the same name.
- dingaling 10y agoCommon words have been under trademark-attack for some years now. Carlsberg managed to register 'probably' in the context of beer and food: https://tmdb.eu/trademark/008349227/eu/en/probably https://tmdb.eu/trademark/008349227/eu/en/probably and Specsavers recently won 'Should've' in the UK, to be referred to the EU level now, though thankfully they had their application narrowed-down to eyewear and medical devices.
- Animats 10y agoThe Moneygram people should file an objection. There are lots of US "Gram" trademarks.
- divbit 10y agoApparently founded in 1940: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoneyGram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoneyGram
- HarryHirsch 10y agoThey should. The unlimited pockets of Travelers Express against the unlimited pockets of Facebook. Everyone is a winner, especially the lawyers!
- SuperPaintMan 10y agoInstagrams TOS actively prohibits usage of "gram" in product names using their API. To the point of revoking API credentials
- nickbauman 10y agoThis is where postmodernism claims corporate policy transitions to religion. There's no way to prove that trademarking that creates any kind of competitive advantage yet the reality distortion field of the corporate ethos insists this sort of shibboleth must stand as law.
- DannyBee 10y agoFWIW: Trademarks are restricted to classes. Both the US and Europe have classification schemes. The overall NICE class on this is 9: http://web2.wipo.int/classifications/nice/nicepub/en/fr/edition-20160101/taxonomy/class-9/?pagination=no&lang=en&mode=flat&explanatory_notes=show&basic_numbers=show http://web2.wipo.int/classifications/nice/nicepub/en/fr/edit... If someone feels like signing up and downloading the application, it should list any subclasses. In the US, you can see instagram's "gram" related trademarks by searching for "( (GRAM)[COMB])[ALL] and (instagram)[ALL]" in TESS at http://tmsearch.uspto.gov http://tmsearch.uspto.gov (i can't deep link it because, you know, probably a 1970's mainframe system ported to the web and all that). If you click on each one, you'll see the good and services categories are different (you can also look and see some are word marks and some are stylized marks)
- sedachv 10y ago> i can't deep link it because, you know, probably a 1970's mainframe system ported to the web and all that I think it has to do with the length of the query (longer ones go to POST). For example searching for GRAM gives this linkable URL: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4809%3Aqvaa03.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=GRAM&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4809%3Aq...
- DannyBee 10y agoNope, it's not really linkable. If you try it, it will say "This search session has expired. Please start a search session again by clicking on the TRADEMARK icon, if you wish to continue." They include the session tokens in the URL, instead of reperforming the search as a new user or something.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- mc32 10y agoMaybe Kodak should take the "Insta" back from instamatic.
- labster 10y agoThe -gram suffix has been used for various communication services for more than a century. Sorry, but on this trademark I'm GRAM negative.
- desireco42 10y agoIsn't Telegram, which is base of Instagram name is original?
- ademarre 10y agoSuppose Western Union brought back its telegram service together with a mobile app for requesting telegraph transmissions. Would they not be allowed to use the word telegram? ADD: What about Telegram Messenger? Does Instagram have beef with them? (Aside from disallowing Telegram links in user profiles.)
- hvidgaard 10y agoGram is a stupid word to trademark. There is a lot of companies that is named <something>gram including an appliance manufacturer in Denmark that has existed from around the same time the telephone was invented. Not to mention that it is an SI unit and commonly used word.
- samdung 10y agoWe need to think of an alternative word for "PROGRAM".
- nathancahill 10y agoGrand Rapids Art Museum. Anyone?