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Community Forums: Home CafePress Community Forums General Help & Sharing Content Usage Policy (CUP) Use of term OnesiePage 1 2
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Yep.
Ran into that one on another POD. There was a letter from a lawyer and everything.  Perpetually confused, but I try (Suggestions and unsolicited advice welcome) Weasel Puppy Flyball Shop Infestation of the Mind |
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Thankfully I don't do baby stuff or I probably would have used that term. They really should have a list of words that aren't obviously copyrighted\trademarked whatever. People could add to them as they are informed.
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The word "google" is trademark protected but it is becoming part of common language... people often say "I Googled it" ... and this is supposedly (based on this article I was reading about trademark law) something which could invalidate trademark protection.
Onesie, Band Aid, Jello, Kleenex, are similar terms in that they're brand names often used as generic nouns. However, to get the term legally declared "common language" I think you'd have to get yourself sued for trademark infringement, and win the case based on the common language argument. Someone would have to be the test case; set up their own web site (since CafePress won't allow the term) full of ONESIES for sale, and wait for the lawsuit. |
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As an addendum, another no-no term is "Spit Happens" which is owned by Hamco.Inc.. While the trademark reads that it is trademarked for "Baby clothing, namely burp cloths", I had my items removed from CP (and another POD) when it was part of a design on T-shirts in reference to spit valves on musical instruments.
And, yet another that surprised me... the use of the term "CAUTION!"... I mean, seriously!  |
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Caution when used on - clothing.
Another aspect of the 'protection' was negated in a court judgement after a lawsuit was brought attempting to broaden the prohibition on the use of the term 'Caution'. . |
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Aspirin was a trademark in the US owned by Bayer until the Treaty of Versailles. It is still a trademark in Canada and Mexico. According to Wikipedia. Just goes to show how complex trademark law is.
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I never heard the term onesie till I got here at CP where some ppl substitute it for CPs term, infant bodysuit.
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Just out of curiosity, where are you located geographically? I'm wondering if the broad use of Onesie is a regional thing. I'm in CT by way of PA. |
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I'm in Southern California but I don't think that I help your survey since I don't deal with baby stuff at all. That whole baby world is a little culture of it's own.
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Moderator |
I used to warn people about using the term "onesie," ever since we first got creepers/bodysuits. Posts tend to drop off the board after a time, though, and new SKs don't know. I used to wonder how long it would be before we began to annoy Gerber.
You also cannot use "spam" (Hormel will get you) or "caution" (as mentioned above). I have been CUPped for both. http://images4.cafepress.com/p...nt_Color-AshGrey.jpg Lorilei |
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I'm all confused now. I went in the front door to the MP (which if you know me, I rarely do) because I happened to notice a slew of BIG name brands showing up in google cafepress results (for a completely unrelated non-cp search, mind you) rather than the descriptions as before. I wandered in and was able to successfully search in the MP on a whole bunch of name brands such as miller light,bud light,ford,chevy,corona,anheiser busch, comcast, netflix, mercedes, bmw, spam, olympics, onesies (which came up with 3 million results incidentally) etc, etc, etc. You can't find any products with a search on caution.
 On most of the searches, I found direct usage of a bunch of things we did not used to be able to use. Now, I know it sometimes takes a while but this was pretty darn extreme and obvious in designs in many cases. Oddly the related searches from cp at top of pages sometimes had all the name brands listed and sometimes not, but our tags at the bottom were different and less likely to include the hit parade of name brands though it looks like a small amount slipped by in there too. ??? edit to add: I do understand if there is an agreement between cp and companies...this seems quite a bit more than that. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.l.-.-.-.-. "Since we first started, we have always viewed our community as the guiding light for how to grow our products and services " |
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Just because it's there doesn't mean it's legal. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. In my case all it took was Gerber to object to my use of the term onesie and I had to delete it from my shop hundreds of times. I am aware that searching onesie in the MP yields many results, and I actually brought this to the attention of CP when I made my case to them about my usage of the term. They ignored me on it. CP, in my opinion, plays it very safe if they are threatened. I bet that all it would take is the threat of a lawsuit from any of the companies you mentioned and all designs with those tags would be red flagged in a heart beat. Rightfully so, of course, because they are infringing on the trademark rights of these companies. |
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FWIW, it is the sk doing the designs which will probably eventually get cupped. (or not) It appears it is not generally the shopkeepers doing the name brand tagging.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.l.-.-.-.-. "Since we first started, we have always viewed our community as the guiding light for how to grow our products and services " |
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i find it funny that CP will CUP the term onesie, but they use it themselves in the MP.....
http://clothing.cafepress.com/infant-bodysuits -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BoltZ DesignZ - Automotive Apparel For The Automotive Enthusiast - AFFILIATE ME A wise man (blipfish) once said: "Just go with it. Sanity is entirely over rated. " |
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