3 ms·
If this is a gimmick to highlight the incompetency of the USPTO it's a clever one. Not only has ineptitude been used to secure trademark of one of the oldest kn
by shittyanalogy 12y ago
If this is a gimmick to highlight the incompetency of the USPTO it's a clever one. Not only has ineptitude been used to secure trademark of one of the oldest known symbols in common use but that legal status is being being put to work threatening companies into halting sales and opening their books. The corporate inconvenience and money flushing could theoretically escalate and result in at least a tiny bit more scrutiny of how trademarks are issued.
More than likely it's a very enterprising young man interested in getting into the same game as the patent trolls though using a different sort of legal monopoly.
- tzs 12y agoThere's nothing wrong with common symbols being trademarked. The purpose of trademarks is to prevent misrepresentation of origin and consumer confusion. If a company uses a common symbol to mark their products and this distinguishes them from competing products, it would make no sense to not allow them a trademark. Keep in mind that trademarks are limited to particular areas of commerce. If someone got a trademark on π as the name of a line of condoms, for instance, that would not prevent anyone from using π as the name of a line of fishing poles. The problem here is not with a common symbol being trademarked. The problem here is that "π." does not do a good job of identifying a line of clothing, because there have been plenty of prior lines of clothing that have included "π" on them.