Legal Question in Intellectual Property in United States

Dear Trademark/Domain Name Legal Department,

I am perplexed and have a question. I have had a small entertainment services business with my wife for a number of years where we have developed talent of signing competitions to raise monies for various not-for-profit charities. To aid in the distribution (being disabled myself) for many who cannot easily get around, I had created websites with the given name of the event using typically a .com or .org suffix. These sites were used to provide the rules for the event. There is currently one website domain name I have owned for many years and now I have just become recently aware of the fact that a local area party is now using the exact same name as my domain name (without the .com or .org suffix) and now showing a TM after the name of the event. This event is not at all related to their normal line of business and quite the contrary. Furthermore, I do not see any sense of the name coming up in TESS or elsewhere yet they are using the TM after the event name. In addition, I question for various reason of the truth behind it.

I have now been paying years on the domain purchased and have the website ready to publish at any time. Is all my work in my telling people in my area and local chambers (for a community event in their county), a complete loss? Or can I at least request a stop of their continued advertising at this point. As a disabled person, I will never be able to recoup the monies and time I have spent.

It all makes me very sick and frustrated that this can happen.

Sincerely,

Michael


Asked on 12/09/10, 4:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kevin B. Murphy Franchise Foundations, APC

As a Franchise Attorney I can tell you this is not a simple question with a simple answer. How is the other user displaying the name? On it's website or ? TM is an abbreviation for trademark, usually an assertion of common law rights (meaning they haven't formally registered with anybody). Have you registered your mark as used on your website with your state or, even more powerful, federally (through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)? A registration showing actual use that predates the other use would be a step towards preventing use by others. This is a technical area of the law so consult with a good business or franchise attorney in your area for specific advice.

Mr. Franchise - Kevin B. Murphy, B.S., M.B.A., J.D.

Franchise Foundations, a Professional Corporation

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Answered on 12/15/10, 7:17 am


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