Trademarks®™SM?
Who Trademarks the word Creation?
Sorry about the shoddy photo work (its what happens when you do it yourself).
So the absurdity of trademarking the word Creation, as it corresponds to the making of ice cream; led me to want to discuss just what the heck these trademark things are for. Hopefully this will be enlightening for those not familiar with this branch of intellectual property.
What is a trademark?
According to the USPTO (the governmental types who protect and monitor this sort of thing)
- A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.
- A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Throughout this booklet, the terms “trademark” and “mark” refer to both trademarks and service marks.
So that’s helpful a trademark identifies a physical good or product, whereas a service mark is utilized to distinguish a source of service. An example of this might be something like this:
Zowie flakes™ is a toasted sugary treat to the breakfast table. And it: Brings the YumSM
Now you know all about the TM and the SM signs you see next to the name of your favorite brand of ceral, or promised roll over minutes.
Wait what about the ® you’re asking? If we have products and services what could that stand for? It turns out it’s the symbol for when your mark is recognized by the US government.
“Any time you claim rights in a mark, you may use the “TM” (trademark) or “SM” (service mark) designation to alert the public to your claim, regardless of whether you have filed an application with the USPTO. However, you may use the federal registration symbol “®” only after the USPTO actually registers a mark, and not while an application is pending. Also, you may use the registration symbol with the mark only on or in connection with the goods and/or services listed in the federal trademark registration.”
Take away: Now you know the SM, TM and R “bugs” are (thats what the cool kids call them). This should come in handy when you’re starting a business, thinking through a new product offering, or having those uncomfortable conversations with IP lawyers.
A pretty cool benefit of trademarking is you can utilize marks without filing, but there are some restrictions to the protection you get.
Since 1986, I have been hosting seminars on goat production under the mgmtnow.com™ moniker. Thus, you must either pay my royalty fee of 10,000 WOW gold, or I will have to get the laywer to place a call to your organization. Our yearly licensing fee is 20% or 5,000 WG and it requires a signature on our fifty page EULA. Unfortunately, mgmtnow.com™ license only works on non-Microsoft products. If you attempt to modify it in any way to run on a Microsoft product, you forfeit your license to utilize the product. We have the right to introduce unwanted features, such as a wi-fi component that has never worked, and you have no say in the matter. All disputes on the mgmtnow.com™ will be handled in a court of arbitration determined by my organization, using the head judge of Domir (French meaning to sleep).
The problem is not a trademark or registration issue. It’s that these companies are producing garbage products. For example, the entire world uses Google for it’s search engine (64% according to CNet). There is no need for another “decision engine” (yech… barf.. barf… get cancer and die). How about we focus instead on Window’s 7.0? Quit doing a half-way job on many products and do GREAT on one or two core ones. We don’t want choice… we want the tools we have to work.
Take notice Bill and Steve….