trademark TM use with logo
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- jesterlou0
they are trademarking the service and the name, Im fine with using it in text but trying to get away without it being part of the mark
- ukit0
haha. It's a good question, only thing I could find was this
http://www.smithsholar.com/singl…
CONSEQUENCES OF NON-USE OR MISUSE OF TRADEMARK SYMBOLS - PART II
"Because there are federal statutes governing the use of trademark symbols, it follows that there are consequences of non-use and/or misuse of those symbols.
The greatest consequence comes with non-use of the trademark symbol ® after obtaining a federal trademark registration. A trademark owner may be denied money damages if they have not put the infringer on actual notice of their trademark. A trademark owner may still receive an injunction, but could be denied money damages. Placing the trademark symbol by the trademark automatically puts an infringer on notice of the federal trademark registration.
Furthermore, using a federal trademark symbol beside a trademark that does not have a federal trademark registration could constitute fraud. Courts, however, have become very lenient on this matter and accept a wide variety of explanations for the misuse. However, if the intent was to deceive the public, then it could be viewed as false advertising and fraud. "
So basically, in practice probably nothing will happen for illegally using ® if you are some small business somewhere. If you are Google or Yahoo it would be a bad idea because theoretically you could be sued for fraud.
I think this makes the case for adding it to the logo though. What I was trying to say earlier is that the product service, logo and name could all be different trademarks - although it seems like it's possible to trademark these things together also and that's what companies usually do. So if you used the ™ or ® in text only you could be implying that you trademarked the name, but not the actual logo. Then when someone ripped your site/logo, you wouldn't have as strong of a case.
- but you could sue them on copyright or trade dress infringement for the logo.ribit
- d_rek0
jesterlou
I think if it's a registered trademark as long as you have the ® in a disclaimer or appearing at least once in a portion of the copy you're free to use the logo w/out the TM. If it's not registered in order for your art to be legally protected it must appear with the TM.
- ukit0
One thing that's kinda interesting, you can look up any word to see if it's trademarked here
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.…
Search for a big company like Google, and you'll see all the ridiculous shit people try to pull.
Like some guy tried to register the name "A.O.L.G.O.O.G.L.E."
A woman successfully registered the name "Googlebutts"
- ukit0
Well, to be frank, maybe you should stop trying to get away with it.
I don't think basic legal issues like that should be influenced by a subjective design judgement.
- airey0
™ is free and goes there to signify that the mark is a trademark and therefore not to be copied. ® is when they have registered a trademark which is therefore significantly more protected.
without the ™ it's still protected by IP laws but the grey areas work their way in.
- ukit0
What are they trademarking? The logo itself or the products/services? Two different trademarks there.
™ means an "unregistered trademark," i.e., you didn't actually file for an official trademark. Once your trademark application goes through, you can use ®.
- dragonfruit0
what if you use ® but havent registered it ?
- bored2death0
in my experience, if a mark is TM'ed then there is always a TM on it.
- jesterlou0
thanks for all the advice and feedback. Yes I understood the R vs TM, but wasnt sure if it was mandatory it be part of the logo design
- mayo0
I'm with boredtodeath.
As far as how often to use it, I believe that in something short (like a postcard), after the first time you use it (logo does not count) then you don't have to use it for the rest of that side/postcard. Multipage docs I think get broken down into chapters.
Let me see if I can find some sources.
- utopian0
AWAYS USE 42PT. HELVETICA HEAVY ON THE "TM".