5 ms·
It seems like a legitimate start. IANAL but you do have to defend your trademark or risk losing it. This is an inherent danger of using a common word in a trade
by flatline 7y ago
It seems like a legitimate start. IANAL but you do have to defend your trademark or risk losing it. This is an inherent danger of using a common word in a trademark...
- soulofmischief 7y ago> This is an inherent danger of using a common word in a trademark... You shouldn't be able to trademark a common word in the first place. It's literary colonialism.
- msla 7y agoTrademarks need to be limited to being consumer protection: A company can only own a word or design or color scheme to the extent it prevents bad actors from fooling customers with deceptively similar names and trade dress. This has the positive side-effect of preventing those same bad actors from harming the company which owns the trademark, but that should be seen as a side-effect, and not as the primary purpose of trademarks.
- mc32 7y agoFord, Apple, Sharp, Adobe, National, Amazon, Sun, Oracle, etc. all are generic terms.
- soulofmischief 7y agoHowever, if you look at the trademarks themselves, they have very limited scope and also require specific visual differentiators. The word "Adobe" isn't trademarked, but so that I don't buy the wrong Adobe which is actually malware, it is illegal to advertise or commercially distribute creative digital software bearing the name Adobe and copying its visual likeness. But I could start my own Spanish-themed footwear company called Adobe Footwear. Adobe itself is not trademarked.
- yabadabadoes 7y agoI don't think any of these are from generic terms from within their trade.
- mthoms 7y agoThose trademarks only apply in certain markets. That's why for example, you also have Ford Models and Apple Vacations.