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Artist => Copyrights/Trade Marks info/questions => Topic started by: Croft on July 10, 2012, 08:03:04 AM

Title: yes another TM question
Post by: Croft on July 10, 2012, 08:03:04 AM

I want to do  product competing against a competitor, they have TM'd   "  I Love X" ( X withheld)  I want to do something similar but using " I Heart X"  or " I luv X" or love in different languages. How far reaching can there TM go,   If you search the frase they have TM'd in google there are many examples of it that are not thiers, I assume they are not enforcing it ?
Any thoughts?
Thanks

Title: Re: yes another TM question
Post by: Denis Kolar on July 10, 2012, 08:26:11 AM

I believe that they can put the TM on the design of it, but they can not TM the phrase. If you change the design, you should be OK.
I did contact Copyright Department about a certain phrase at one time, and that was what I was told.

I would check just to make sure :)

Title: Re: yes another TM question
Post by: Gilligan on July 10, 2012, 09:12:57 AM

I doubt the "Luv" version would cut it.

Title: Re: yes another TM question
Post by: blue moon on July 10, 2012, 09:14:08 AM

my gut reaction would be to come up with your own slogan rather than playing off of theirs. You are already thinking in the right direction, take it a step further and trump what they are doing!

pierre

Title: Re: yes another TM question
Post by: ZooCity on July 10, 2012, 10:52:32 AM

The company you are trying to knock off may or may not hold a word mark to their, presumably, original idea. A word mark covers a broader range of variants and yes, phoenetically identical ones would be an infringement.  Using the heart symbol probably circumvents the issue but consider what you are doing first, a slippery slope you may be heading down.

Take some advice from Pierre.  sorry for the yoda voice, it just came out that way.