Name Bullying?

[Alesium]

Hello. I had just recently received a message from another store owner that because the name of a product line in my alt's store and her store's name are the same (except for one capitalized letter) that she would like for me to change it, especially since hers has been around longer and she claims to have the name trademarked. I told her that since there is no conflict of interest between our two businesses that I have no intention of changing it at this time. She said she'll let her lawyers know.

I did some snooping around to see what all her business was:

1. This user's account is a few years older than my alt's. I'm not sure where to look up a store's age (even my own!).

2. I found no proof of trademarking her store's name except for a "TM" in her store's group's description. Then again, not sure where I would look for official, legal proof of this either.

3. Her store only exists on the Marketplace and has only one item in it, which is a product celebrating this new year. I found no in-world existence of this store. The only reference to it on her profile is in the group list. This leads me to believe this is a new store, in contrast with my several-months-old store with dozens of products listed on the MP and in-world, and that I shamelessly promote in my profile description and picks list.

4. Her store's group has only 2 members in it (including the owner) and has a description very similar to my store's group's. Mine only has 3-4, but I don't do much to promote it anyway since most of my sales are from the MP. :p

 

If by some chance this is actually real, what do I need to do to prepare for any legal action? Personally, I think this is an empty threat by someone who feels that my store is competition, despite selling incredibly different products; or wants kicks and giggles. Thanks, Ales

[Theresa Tennyson]

Usually trademarks only apply to one particular field of endeavor - two companies can have the same name if they're in such different businesses that there would be little chance anyone could confuse one for another, especially if the name of the company is a word in common use for other things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v._Apple_Computer

[Perrie Juran]

As best I understand, for a Trademark to be enforceable it needs to be registered.

You can do a Trademark search here:

http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/process/search/

[Alesium]

I had used the USPTO website search and it yielded no results in the basic search.  I feel that perhaps the individual in question feels that by putting a "TM" in the name automatically trademarks the name, so no worries!

 

Thanks for your help, you two!

[Nefertiti Nefarious]

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Alesium wrote:

Hello. I had just recently received a message from another store owner that because the name of a product line in my alt's store and her store's name are the same (except for one capitalized letter) that she would like for me to change it, especially since hers has been around longer and she claims to have the name trademarked. I told her that since there is no conflict of interest between our two businesses that I have no intention of changing it at this time.

She said she'll let her lawyers know.

I did some snooping around to see what all her business was:

2. I found no proof of trademarking her store's name except for a "TM" in her store's group's description. Then again, not sure where I would look for official, legal proof of this either.

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uspto.gov has a searchable database of REGISTERED trademarks ... that's the only kind that matters. Search there.

 

As for her lawyers, I think they exist only in her head.

 

[Sassy Romano]

I'd ignore it.  For what it's worth, my venture is called "Sassy's" and I know of another shop called "Sassy!", I have a number of things from there.

Sometimes people have confused us, I just give them the LM to the other shop instead.  If it's bi-directional traffic fine, if not, it doesn't matter anyway.

Waaaay too much dramatainment potential otherwise.

[Steph Catseye]

usually when people threaten you with lawyers (plural) you have nothing to worry about.

[Krueger]

As has already been mentioned, unless they've registered the name of their preoduct, it's fair game.  Just ignore them!