4 ms·
As a cycling fan we've had a few of these sorts of shady cases where people try to take a pre-existing term, trademark it and then threaten to sue people legiti
by Lio 7y ago
As a cycling fan we've had a few of these sorts of shady cases where people try to take a pre-existing term, trademark it and then threaten to sue people legitimately using it.
Recent examples that have amused me include when Specialized Bicycle Components released a bike named after the French town of Roubaix and its famous bike race on cobbled roads... then proceeded to start threatening other businesses also named after the town.
Or the company Peloton Interactive Inc which named its indoor spinning product after the commonly used name for a group of cyclists "peloton"... and then proceeded to start threatening bloggers for using the term to describe groups of cyclists.
What's particularly funny about the peloton case is that some other outfit in California is claiming a trademark on the term "spinning" to describe people indoors using static spin bikes... and has proceeded to start threatening small gyms for using that term.
Not sure if this is known as trademark trolling or not but I'm going to quietly trademark that term and start sending out threatening letters just in case.
- shardinator 7y agoI think a ‘business process patent’ to protect your trademark trolling is the way to go :)
- carapace 7y agohttps://yogainternational.com/article/view/yogaglo-patent-dropped https://yogainternational.com/article/view/yogaglo-patent-dr... > Just over a year ago, Yoga International broke the news that YogaGlo had filed a patent application for their method of filming yoga classes. YI (among others) had recently received legal letters claiming that some of our early video content fell under the vague description given in the application. Though YI removed the content, we were troubled by the broader implications of the patent request, and the precedent that it set for contemporary yoga culture as a whole.
- jgtrosh 7y agoHello, Your comment infringes on my patent regarding commenting style. Please cease and desist.
- Lio 7y agoFantastic idea! This incoming in the cycling world, a company calling itself Carbon Inc has started 3D printing components such as bike saddles. I'm expecting them to start going after any manufacture using the word carbon on their products sometime soon... which is basically all of them. They'll make a mint. I'm going to get in ahead of the game this time and register "3D Printing" to add to my new empire. How could I fail!
- katmannthree 7y agoSpecialized is notorious for trademark scummery, it's a shame people still buy their bikes. Other words they've claimed are "epic," "rockhopper," and "stumptown."
- dmix 7y agoI've never understood what they really gain from doing this stuff. Most of the time they aren't even direct competitors they're suing. Do the courts not view this stuff with context of the specific business they are in, in addition to legacy/common uses of the word?
- petre 7y agoActually Advanced Sports International, owners of the Fuji brand, licensed the Roubaix brand to Specialized in 2003. It's not even their own trademark. https://www.bikeradar.com/news/specialized-roubaix-trademark-legal-threat-may-backfire-as-fuji-weighs-in/ https://www.bikeradar.com/news/specialized-roubaix-trademark...