[statc]

My company's name is Hedonist. I haven't trademarked it. and i checked whether there was a live TM for it. There wasn't I was searching on cafepress and found a store that sells all kinds of stuff with Hedonist enscribed on it. I don't really care that they use the name( it's a word after all), but i was wondering if there is anything that they could do to me for using it? It's not that big of a deal either way since I'm not a company that advertises the name of the co on every product so changing the name to a varient could be easily done. but i was just curious.

 

[Rodney]

but i was wondering if there is anything that they could do to me for using it?

Nope.

Not unless they have a trademark on it (which would be very hard to get since it is such a common word. You'd really have to establish it as a brand first).

 

[monkeylantern]

I think the likelihood of someone who sells soley through cafepress of having applied for a trademark to be very, very slim.

And as Rodney said, it would probably not be granted.


To be honest, we've had a lot of people panicing about trademarks recently.....I really don't think you should. I'd worry more about selling, and building the brand, than the ego rubbage that trademarking essentially is. Unless you're willing to defend your trademark (if you manage to get one granted), through crawling the web and spending big bucks on Cease and Desist letters, there's really not much point.

Whip up your own C&D letter.....if it's professional and friendly enough, explaining the length of time a name has been used, that's usually enough to stop any upstarts, TM or not.

 

[BelHeirClothing]

I think the likelihood of someone who sells soley through cafepress of having applied for a trademark to be very, very slim.

And as Rodney said, it would probably not be granted.


To be honest, we've had a lot of people panicing about trademarks recently.....I really don't think you should. I'd worry more about selling, and building the brand, than the ego rubbage that trademarking essentially is. Unless you're willing to defend your trademark (if you manage to get one granted), through crawling the web and spending big bucks on Cease and Desist letters, there's really not much point.

Whip up your own C&D letter.....if it's professional and friendly enough, explaining the length of time a name has been used, that's usually enough to stop any upstarts, TM or not.

I'll let you copy the C&D letter I got from playboy legal once... hey hefner said it was fine and so did my dad.. I guess they missed out on the memo..

 

[neato]

Yeah, I'd worry about it. Believe me, I just went through a pretty scary ordeal with Heinz. Everything turned out ok in my case, but the lost sleep wasn't worth it.

Be very careful. These companies and lawyers will do anything to get another buck from the public.

 

[monkeylantern]

Yeah, I'd worry about it. Believe me, I just went through a pretty scary ordeal with Heinz. Everything turned out ok in my case, but the lost sleep wasn't worth it.

Be very careful. These companies and lawyers will do anything to get another buck from the public.

I'm not sure you can compare Heinz, one of the largest and most politically connected manufacturing companies in the world, and a guy who sells tshirts on cafepress. Using a generic name.

 

[neato]

I'm not sure you can compare Heinz, one of the largest and most politically connected manufacturing companies in the world, and a guy who sells tshirts on cafepress. Using a generic name.

I actually was referring to your post above about people panicking over TMs. I agree, most who have shirts on cafepress are small potatoes, don't worry about them.

But TMs are not to be messed with. I'm surprised at all the T-Shirt vendors online that get away with the things they do.

Be careful.

 

[Comin'OutSwingin]

They aren't necessarily getting away with anything. People get C&D's all the time, that others don't hear about.

In other cases, some of them may just be so small that the big companies haven't found them yet. But you'd better believe that if a big company with a trademark feels that somebody is infringing, there will be some action of some kind!

 

[monkeylantern]

I actually was referring to your post above about people panicking over TMs. I agree, most who have shirts on cafepress are small potatoes, don't worry about them.

But TMs are not to be messed with. I'm surprised at all the T-Shirt vendors online that get away with the things they do.



Be careful.

Ahhh.....I was talking the other way around. *Infringing* trademarks is just asking for trouble, I agree. But panicking about registering *your own* was what I was on about. Lots of people come here worrying about TMs when they're still at ground zero in regards to their tshirt empire......kind of like the builders of the pyramids worrying about the design of the curtains when they still have 1,000,000 tonnes of stone to move from Africa.

itwas more aimed at the spate of posts recentlyover this particular one.

 

[neato]

Gotcha!

I agree, don't worry too much about that.