Dirtbag no more

[mec]

your just getting shit on left and right, what are they going to try to take away from you next so that I can buy it now before it is gone...

[larrythellama]

i think you have to be using the term for profit before there is a legal issue.

[Winter]

Mike it was only a matter of time before someone threatened to sue you. I suggest you hire a high-priced attorney and stand up for your principles. Litigation is the only way to go.

[Dru]

And if you can't find a high priced lawyer, you can always use SpecialEd.

[Stefan]

Hasbro wanted to license the word "Monopoly" due to their board game. This was probably about 15 years ago.

 

They lost.

 

There is precedent.

[Bill_Simpkins]

Told you so. You CAN'T trademark a term that has been used in slang for years, well, you can, but it won't hold up in court. You can't protect words themselves, but you can protect the context in which the word is used. I think the only way you can actually trademark a word is if you came up with it.

It's a fine line though in some cases. If your shirts were call "Dirtbag Shirts" then they would have legal ground, or if your print matched their logo. if your shirts simply had some guy calling someone else a "Dirtbag", it wouldn't be a problem.

Lets take the band Judas Priest for example. Now they don't have legal rights to those words, they have been around for hundred of years, but to the logo and things inteded towards the band.

For instance, if someone made a shirt that said "JUDAS Priest, Metal is Forever" on it, and sold it, they could be sued. But if someone made a shirt that said "Judas Priest! Someone stole my shorts!" then they wouldn't.

I think their shirts have thier name as "DIRTBAG", the manuafacururer, when yours simple are stateing that the wearer or character in the shirt is a dirtbag.

 

Then again, this may be a battle you don't even want to deal with.

[knelson]

Told you so. You CAN'T trademark a term that has been used in slang for years, well, you can, but it won't hold up in court. You can't protect words themselves, but you can protect the context in which the word is used. I think the only way you can actually trademark a word is if you came up with it.... yadda yadda yadda...

 

Can to. Can not. Can to. Can not. Can to. Can not...

 

From the good ol' US Trademark Office:

 

Word Mark DIRTBAG

Goods and Services IC 025. US 022 039. G & S: clothing, namely, casual and informal clothing, such as shirts, blouses, pants, shorts, underwear, shoes, socks, hats and caps.

FIRST USE: 19951201.

FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19970601

Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING

Serial Number 75386807

Filing Date November 7, 1997

Current Filing Basis 1A

Original Filing Basis 1A

Published for Opposition July 18, 2000

Registration Number 2392519

Registration Date October 10, 2000

Owner (REGISTRANT) Canning, Douglas P. INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES P.O. Box 470775 San Francisco CALIFORNIA 941470775

 

(LAST LISTED OWNER) THE DIRTBAG CLOTHING COMPANY CORPORATION 1945 E. FRANCISCO, SUITE F SAN RAFAEL CALIFORNIA 94901

Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED

Attorney of Record ROBERT E HARTENBERGER

Type of Mark TRADEMARK

Register PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

 

Can to.

 

Look - I'm not a lawyer, nor do I even remotely ever want to play one on TV. But I have a little business venture on the side where I had to learn all about the ugliness of the Patent and Copyright Office, and what you can and can't do.

 

Yes... you CAN trademark a word. Any word. And you can keep people from using that word when it can cause confusion between products. And who determines if it causes confusion?... Some boneheaded federal circuit judge that doesn't know one dirtbag from another.

 

Get this - you don't even have to trademark a word to keep people from legally using it once you use it for commercial reasons! The only reason people trademark it is to allow any infringements to be heard in federal courts and not at the state level. But that's a different thread...

 

If the guy was going after Mike personally (which he did already, but Mike wisely ignored... I assume) then yes... Mike would have every right to fight the guy in court - and probably lose - rightly or wrongly. But he didn't... he went after CafeShops. And unless Mike is willing to foot CafeShop's legal bill for fighting the guy, then CafeShop isn't even going to blink an eye about shutting Mikey down. I'm pretty sure in their user agreement, they is some boilerplate verbage included that says trademark infringement will result in account termination.

 

Regarding the MILF infringement... specifically "Got MILF", I'd press CafeShops about that one if you like the fight, Mike. From a quickie search, it appears most of the trademarks on "MILF" have gone dead. The trademarks were applied for, but due to lack of correspondence from the applicants, the Trademark Office didn't register them. The only three MILF terms trademarked that I see are "MILF SEEKER", "MILF GOLF", and "MILF MANIA."

 

I agree Bill - this stuff is just plain stupid. I used to think you had to invent words to trademark them... kinda like "Kleenex" and the sort. But not so.

 

-kurt

[layton]

Once again, Kurt's assumptions and research are correct. Kurt kicks ass. Basically, if you want to shut me down, just email Cafeshops and they'll ban something of mine just to avoid ANY legal issue or trouble. but, they do alert me to who is the troublemaker, so if you want to play a joke on me, i'll know who did it...and i can be quite vengeful. you should've seen what Polish Bob did to this Douglass Canning dude. i'm serious. it was kinda a big deal. thanks never do that again, polish bob!

[knelson]

Hasbro wanted to license the word "Monopoly" due to their board game. This was probably about 15 years ago.

 

They lost.

 

There is precedent.

 

Not that I like beating dead horses, but...

 

I did a little more snooping and found that Hasbro DOES have numerous trademarks registered for the word "Monopoly." One of those registrations is for board games. There are others, ranging from computer games to a line of clothing.

 

These appear to be new registrations - can't tell if they're just updates of old ones or if Hasbro's legal team just did a full frontal assault on the Trademark Office.

 

If the story you're remembering was 15 years ago, there probably was truth to it then. But there has been a lot of "enlightened thinking" going on with the folks at the Copyright/Patent/Trademark offices since then.

 

-kurt

[Stefan]

Hasbro wanted to license the word "Monopoly" due to their board game. This was probably about 15 years ago.

 

They lost.

 

There is precedent.

 

Not that I like beating dead horses, but...

 

I did a little more snooping and found that Hasbro DOES have numerous trademarks registered for the word "Monopoly." One of those registrations is for board games. There are others, ranging from computer games to a line of clothing.

 

These appear to be new registrations - can't tell if they're just updates of old ones or if Hasbro's legal team just did a full frontal assault on the Trademark Office.

 

If the story you're remembering was 15 years ago, there probably was truth to it then. But there has been a lot of "enlightened thinking" going on with the folks at the Copyright/Patent/Trademark offices since then.

 

-kurt

 

thanks for letting me know. I did not know that.