Trademark

[Stitch Up]

Afternoon guys

A local holiday resort, Barry Island has for as long as I remember been known as Barrybados, it was a word used by everyone including the residents.

Two years ago I had an artist design a graphic for me to print on white shirts, here it is:



This morning I received an email from a chap requesting that I remove the shirt from my website as last year he tademarked the term Barrybados. I checked and indeed he's correct, re registered the trademark in 2013.

Now I've not sold one single Barrybados shirt so this is no biggie for me and I will remove the shirt from our website however, the question I would like answered is: Do I have to remove the item, it was designed before he registered the trademark?

Look forward to your replies.

John

[Quinsfan]

How can you trademark a word used by locals and visitors alike. Could I then trademark Skeggy for Skegness.

[ArferMo]

Trademark is becoming a joke.

Wonder if I could trademark the letter e and stop people using it.

[ArtyGamer]

Legally, a trademark can only be challenged if the person challenging it can prove that they've been trading with it for longer than the person who now holds it. In your case, as you haven't actually traded with that name, I wouldn't assume that you'd be able to challenge them. It's like I've been selling products with a particular design for years and had no trouble until a corporation registered the trademark and demanded that I pull all my 'infringing' designs. I couldn't really challenge them on it as it was just a design on some merchandise rather than a trading name, and they had every right to register the trademark so I complied.

The thing is, I have a background in gaming. There's a company called King Games who have Candy Crush Saga and all those other 'saga' games, so when another company brought out a game by the name of The Banner Saga, King Games sued them. The game was nothing like their poorly executed colour-match games... it was a BIG game, with a storyline, decent combat... everything that Candy Crush (etc) weren't. Yet King were still allowed to prevent them from using the word 'Saga' in the name. Similarly, ZeniMax Media sued Mojang because Mojang (the Minecraft people) created a game called Scrolls. When ZeniMax Media found out (owners of Bethesda, who made The Elder Scrolls) they immediately took Mojang to court because they wanted to prevent ANYONE from ever releasing a game with 'Scrolls' in the title. Then we have Tim Langdell... a guy who had a video game development company called Edge Games waaay back in 1990. He embarked on legal campaigns to stop ANYONE from using the word 'Edge'. Seriously. Edge magazine... sued. EA for Mirror's Edge... sued. You name it... if it had 'edge' in the title, Langdell tried to sue someone over it.

It's really dodgy ground. My argument is that you shouldn't be able to trademark a word unless you made it up. If it exists, then it's public domain. Image marks are different as they ARE legally protected... but WORDS?! Shouldn't be allowed.

[ArferMo]

So am I free to use Manchester United EU000421545 as the trademark is expired ?

[Stitch Up]

How can you trademark a word used by locals and visitors alike. Could I then trademark Skeggy for Skegness.

Based on what I've just experienced, I'd say you can register the trademark 'Skeggy' and pursue anyone who uses it. It's not a joke it's bloody annoying.

[mrs maggot]

stitch up - get on to the local paper, rattle some cages, as i would think they will be in "trouble" if they use it in articles, i went to Barry as a kid as my grandparents lived in Cilfynydd, so it was the only place to holiday, my cousins kids started calling it Barrybados when they were in their teens, and they are in their late 20's early 30's now so there must be plenty who can back up the fact that its been in common use for years

[Renniwano]

Skegvegas it is then lol..

[Stitch Up]

Here's the official response from Information Fill your boots guys, register trademarks and put others out of business.

Dear John

Thank you for your enquiry.

I have checked the trade mark register and they have the word mark for ‘Barrybados’, this gives them sole rights over that name for mugs/wearable garments and clothing, namely shirts, hooded tops and prevents anyone else trading with the name within these classes of goods.

If you continued to use the name on t/shirts you would be infringing their intellectual property rights and they could take legal action to defend their mark.


Yours sincerely

Pauline Waters
IP Advisor

Dear John

Thank you for your enquiry.

I have checked the trade mark register and they have the word mark for ‘Barrybados’, this gives them sole rights over that name for mugs/wearable garments and clothing, namely shirts, hooded tops and prevents anyone else trading with the name within these classes of goods.

If you continued to use the name on t/shirts you would be infringing their intellectual property rights and they could take legal action to defend their mark.


Yours sincerely

Pauline Waters
IP Advisor

[RogerC]

Trademark is becoming a joke.

Wonder if I could trademark the letter e and stop people using it.

Can you please desist from using the letter 'e' because I have trademarked/copywrited and every other possible combination of legal protection over it's use..................I thank you.:biggrin: