Company tries to trademark Goth.

[annuin]

As one of the people behind a website with the very prominent use of the
word "Goth" in it's title and domain PreZ has been keeping
an eye out on the developments behind the trademarking of the word "Goth"
which he was made aware of some months ago (Isotank/Dancing Ferret's
magazine did an article about it too). At the time no attorney of record was
assigned yet for him to voice his concerns and complaints to, now there has.

Bobby Weiner Enterprises (http://www.bobbieweiner.com/) wants to trademark
the word goth for their Bloody Mary Goth
(http://dearbloodymary.com/goth/index.html) line of jewelry and related
products.

This could have repercussions to anybody trying to market things as 'goth
jewelry', of which there are plenty of makers and purveyors on this
newsgroup, hence my reason for bringing this to your attention.

For my husband and I on a personal level something like this could put our
site under threat as Bobby Weiner Enterprises might also be able to attempt
to hijack internet domains with 'goth' in the title (for example, goth.net)
because its HIS trademark, he 'deserves' the domain (and ICANN, the Internet
Corporation of Assigned Network Names, has been progressively validating
these stances).

You can see the application at the US Patent and Trademark site here:
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78219150. As the
document states they wish to use the word Goth for such things as costume
jewelry, earrings, rings, body piercing jewelry, bracelets, pendants,
charms.

There is also another company trying to trademark the word Goth, in this
case for a huge variety of toys, dolls, doll accessories, plush toys and
games, which also might affect some of the people that make dolls here. More
information on that at this US Patent and Trade mark page here:
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78149553

So I'd hereby like to urge everyone to voice their (polite & courteous!) concerns about this. My
husband called the attorney of record of one of the listings and she told
him what the proper procedure is to object. You need to file an opposition
form (sample here: http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/oppositionformat.pdf).
This form should then be mailed to:

Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
2900 Crystal Drive
South Tower Building
Ninth Floor
Arlington, VA 22202-3514

Or you can submit it by fax to (703) 308-9333.

The complete manual for the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is here:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/ttab/tbmp/

An amendment of sorts...

Someone pointed out something about my post in the a.g.f newsgroup:

"This is not the only way. In fact filing an opposition is very expensive. An opposition proceeding is a full-scale inter partes proceeding before an administrative law judge based on evidence found during a discovery period. You would expect to spend a couple of thousand dollars

A cheaper way is to send a letter of protest (TMEP 1715.txt) Do a search for it at USPTO. You will need to send evidence that the term is generic. Stick to the evidence in the case and don't state opinions in your
letter.

Hope this can save you a couple of bucks"

Comments

Re:

[trejkaz.livejournal.com]

Whoa. I thought they stopped the copyrighting of dictionary words years ago.