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Someone Is Trying to Trademark Use of "Bitcoin" on Clothing
- moocowduckquack 13y agoIs interesting that Kaglew Management LLC, which is the company trying to acquire the trademark, is run by Charles Lew, the attorney who is representing the claim. KAGLEW was created by Charles Lew and Alex Kagianaris, partners in the boutique law firm, Kagianaris Lew LLP. They are recognized as a highly motivated and committed, demonstrating extensive experience in restaurant development and management. They are currently involved in several restaurants, bars/lounges, and development projects in the Los Angeles area; all of which showcase their expertise with prominent success rates and notable recognition. Today, in this tough economy, KAGLEW is proud to identify and present hospitality and restaurant ventures as commercial opportunities for themselves and their investors. KAGLEW structures deals for maximum returns and is an invaluable resource for creating and building wealth in commercial properties. Some exciting projects KAGLEW has recently developed are the organic vodka from Hawaii, Ocean Vodka, the highly publicized Crown Bar in West Hollywood and the popular Gasser LOUNGE in Redondo Beach. STOUT, the latest venture from KAGLEW, is bringing together two of the fastest growing commodities in the restaurant industry – gourmet burgers and craft beer. KAGLEW is positioning STOUT as a high volume high return asset and has plans to open multiple locations in Southern California and beyond. I guess they are not doing as well as they hoped in restaurants and craft beers then.
- COMS 13y agoHe was involved with Crown Bar and Winston's, two "trendy" expensive LA bars that were popular many years ago. From his website (KAGLEW.COM), about trademarks- http://ale811.wix.com/restaurantgroupla#!Trademark-Considerations/ctpl/E59E7B34-9E9D-45CE-91FA-606C9421ABBC http://ale811.wix.com/restaurantgroupla#!Trademark-Considera... "The name must not be descriptive" "Stay out of the dictionary. If your prospective mark can be found in a dictionary, it has meaning and will be a poor candidate for a trademark." That's cut and pasted from a document on http://patentax.com/ http://patentax.com/ which also advocates bar owners patenting designs of chairs, shelves and dinnerware.
- delinka 13y ago"Is interesting that..." If a lawyer owns a company that needs legal work, is it so odd that the lawyer does the work? Seems no more odd than an owner that's also a programmer writing software for his business.
- moocowduckquack 13y agoWhat I found interesting was not that it was a lawyer doing their own work, but that the company was a restaurant and beer spinoff from a legal practice, that so far appears to have had very little to do with clothing. If it was a clothing company that was trying to trademark the use of bitcoin for a line of clothing, that would be one thing, but this seems far more speculative an endeavor.
- iondream 13y agoSeems like a money laundering op from the blurb. Any criminal record?
- eru 13y agoCOMS (hellbanned) wrote the following: He was involved with Crown Bar and Winston's, two "trendy" expensive LA bars that were popular many years ago. From his website (KAGLEW.COM), about trademarks- http://ale811.wix.com/restaurantgroupla#!Trademark-Considera.. http://ale811.wix.com/restaurantgroupla#!Trademark-Considera.... "The name must not be descriptive" "Stay out of the dictionary. If your prospective mark can be found in a dictionary, it has meaning and will be a poor candidate for a trademark." That's cut and pasted from a document on http://patentax.com/ http://patentax.com/ which also advocates bar owners patenting designs of chairs, shelves and dinnerware.
- aric 13y agoThe Bitcoin Foundation needs to make itself useful and quickly challenge/oppose this application.
- jafaku 13y agoThey can't even run a forum.
- TomGullen 13y agoAny one currently selling BTC clothing would be interested in this. Contact them. We challenged a patent last year by submitting evidence of prior art. Cost a few hundred $ and not too much time. I'm sure current BTC clothing owners would be incentivised to challenge this in a similar way if it's not too far through the process.
- aric 13y agoI posted it. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=346005.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=346005.0
- oleganza 13y agoBitcoin Foundation has already organised a massive PR for Bitcoin in US Senate last week that doubled the value of everyone's holdings. Sounds useful to me.
- bhartzer 13y agoThe Bitcoin Foundation should definitely own the TM. I'm not surprised that the trolls have appeared.
- aric 13y agoNo one should own the name. Bitcoin was put into this world to be decentralized and for everyone. Use it as you wish in your trade. Claiming exclusivity to "Bitcoin" in most industries now would be like claiming exclusivity to the terms "Email" and "Internet."
- 13y ago
- kaa2102 13y agoBeware the trademark trolls.
- chrismcb 13y agoUnlike a patent, you actually have to be active in the category to maintain your trademark.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- malandrew 13y agoI don't know how someone thinks this is a good idea in the long run. Yeah, I guess you'll make some money at some point, but it also seems like these kinds of shenanigans are only likely to get someone doxxed.