Curious about Trademarks...

[DrumminBoy]

Can anyone register a trademark even if you didn't originally come up with the term? Say "jet ski" hadn't been registered, could anyone up and register that title through the trademark office and file lawsuits against anyone who used that title in advertising?

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: DrumminBoy
Can anyone register a trademark even if you didn't originally come up with the term? Say "jet ski" hadn't been registered, could anyone up and register that title through the trademark office and file lawsuits against anyone who used that title in advertising?

not if it had previously been comonly used. thats how i understand it.

MIKE

 

[n0cmonkey]

No, and generally words cannot be trademarked by themselves. Or copyrighted for that matter.

 

[DrumminBoy]

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1

Originally posted by: DrumminBoy
Can anyone register a trademark even if you didn't originally come up with the term? Say "jet ski" hadn't been registered, could anyone up and register that title through the trademark office and file lawsuits against anyone who used that title in advertising?

not if it had previously been comonly used. thats how i understand it.

MIKE

lets say there is a local company, and they never registered their name for trademark...could you register if yourself and eventually file a lawsuit against that company?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: DrumminBoy

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1

Originally posted by: DrumminBoy
Can anyone register a trademark even if you didn't originally come up with the term? Say "jet ski" hadn't been registered, could anyone up and register that title through the trademark office and file lawsuits against anyone who used that title in advertising?

not if it had previously been comonly used. thats how i understand it.

MIKE

lets say there is a local company, and they never registered their name for trademark...could you register if yourself and eventually file a lawsuit against that company?

Budweiser just lost a big lawsuit similar to that. They tried to sue a company selling Budweiser beer, probably using trademarks. Unfortunately the company they sued had been using the name for a couple of hundred years...