Okay, just wondering... for those who sell shirts with just given names on them, do you check for trademark on each individual given name before you add it to your shop? I'm guessing there could be a lot of companies or brands out there with names like Bella, Victoria, Ashley, or Alyssa, or maybe celebrities who've TM'ed their given name?

With respect... you should check no matter what anyone else does.

www.USPTO.gov


That way you're more educated (and hopefully safer) than someone who is not checking and taking a risk you may not be willing to take.

i have had a few pulled - but not many - i did learn some beer company owns the rights to "i heart guam" ...which i still find as odd

Thanks Blip...
I just never thought about checking given names for TM before, until I opened a new shop this week that includes names, and then checked a couple today and found that yes, there are clothing lines with women's names. Oh well, more work, but safer.

I just got all my items with the name "Ezekiel" pulled. I guess because of the bread? That's pretty lame that a first name can be copyrighted. I hope no one creates a brand with my first name.

Edit: Silly me, there is a brand of food with my first name. But its not causing it to be red flagged.

Have never heard of Ezekiel bread... well, I'll add that to the list of 'first names to avoid'. Luckily I'm still on female names right now...

Anyone else know of first names that are copyrighted? Will save me some looking up.

If you can find out who made the infringement claim sometimes you can get things reinstated if your design will clearly not be mistaken for their trademark.

I had one flagged a while back for the use of the phrase "bad boy" (IIRC). My Christmas design obviously had nothing to do with the Bad Boy brand - I just used those words in the design and as one of the tags - and the trademark owner agreed to contact CP to have the design reactivated after I contacted them about it.

Trademarks are about protecting consumers by way of clearly identifying the source of a product. As long as that purpose is not thwarted and no brand confusion is created you have a good chance.

quote:

Anyone else know of first names that are copyrighted? Will save me some looking up.

I'd probably avoid "Elvis".

Barbie can't be used in any way on anything.


Hugs
Susan

*lol* I haven't tried putting Elvis or Barbie on anything.

I have about 600 female and 470 male names that I've used in various shops and Ezekiel was the only one CUP'd. Funny thing is I think it was the last name I picked when I was making my male names list. So its not popular enough for me to care enough to fight the CUP. If they start CUPing names like Mary, Jennifer, Michael, etc, then I'd get really annoyed.

I got into doing names because I was annoyed at getting my other designs CUP'd (and I've always had an interest in names, I've had baby name books since I was 10 and have never been pregnant)

i had i heart elvis & i heart barie removed - both of which were made as special requests for people who had that name and did not understand why they were never allowed to purhase anything their own name just because someone else had it too...

i think sometimes when they see it is a name shop - they will not try to shut you down because they see you are not trying to infringe on them - or maybe i have just been lucky

FYI i was using a baby name site for my one - and the name "chanel" was listed as being in the top 100 names of french children....unforutnatly also one very rich person trademarked it so i cant use - so i guess a few hundred thousand children in france owe some conglomerate a royalty every time they write their name...

quote:

Originally posted by DesignsOutOfMind:
Barbie can't be used in any way on anything.

So much for putting a shrimp on it...