SCION is a new brand from Toyota, to be rolled out in June 2003.  It means offspring (or a shoot from a plant).  BusinessWeek published the name in March when someone spotted the trademark application (once again showing the value of trademark databases).  Register.com appears to have handled the domain name registrations for Toyota, and obtained SCION.COM, SCIONSUCKS.COM and SCIONCARSSUCK.COM. 

A Toyota spokesperson said in an AdAge article:

“I don’t think a lot of people know how to pronounce” Scion . . .  “We’ll take care of that with a few million dollars of marketing.”

I would have said “Pick a name people know how to pronounce and save a few million dollars.”  So it’s a good thing I’m not in marketing.

 

Via David Galbraith.

The American Association of Retired Persons doesn’t endorse political candidates.  Florida Governor and part-time trademark lawyer Jeb Bush sent out a mailer to senior citizens illsutrated with a photo of Bush from an AARP gathering, showing Bush wearing an AARP button standing in front of an AARP sign.  AARP is now protesting the mailing, arguing that it falsely suggests that Bush is endorsed by AARP.

File this with the AFLAC DUCK and the various stupid domain name tricks we’ve seen during this campaign.

The American Association of Retired Persons doesn’t endorse political candidates.  Florida Governor and part-time Trademark Lawyer Jeb Bush sent out a mailing to Florida seniors featuring a picture of him speaking to the AARP, wearing an AARP button and standing in front of an AARP banner.  The AARP has protested the mailer, and says that this mis-leadingly implies that the AARP endorses Bush.  
There is some law on the use of symbols in political speech (see e.g. Brach van Houten Holding v. Save Brach's Coalition, 856 F. Supp. 472, 31 USPQ2d 1786 (ND Ill 1994) (Regarding union’s use of trademark of employer) but on the whole, I wouldn’t say that there is a myriad of decisions on this fact pattern.
 File this with the AFLAC DUCK and the various stupid domain name tricks we’ve seen during this campaign

Someone in a Slashdot discussion thread mentions that slashdot.info is apparently being cyber-squatted by Ziff Davis because it points to ZD Net.  Skeptical readers tested that out and then someone points out that it re-directs to Newsforge, a Slashdot-owned site.  Then someone points out that it re-directs to cnn.com.  Apparently, www.slashdot.info points to all those sites, and if you keep hitting refresh, it points to register.co.uk and several more (none of whom are the actual registrant, who is an indivudual in Utah).

This would make a good fact pattern for a law school exam.  Thanks to Nathan for this.

 

Here’s a law.com article on IP management software. It mentions several vendors including IPPO, whose ASP model I am currently trying out (and liking).  In the mid 90’s, up-front expenditures in hardware and software for a trademark management system could run into the tens of thousands (depending on number of seats, number of records, existing hardware set-up).  If these web-based ASP versions work, up-front expenditures could consist solely of training and data-entry.  As more and more records get digitized courtesy of national governments (see metasearch), data entry costs should fall as well.

We have now added France to the MetaSearch.  Unfortunately, France only seems to provide the name of the mark for free – you need to pay to get registrant’s name, reg. number, etc.  We provide the URL of France’s trademark office if you need the extra data.

This brings us to 9 registries in the international trademark metasearch – U.S., Canada, U.K CTM, Madrid, Hungary, Finland, France and Japan.

A reminder about searching – dead hit searching is a useful tool but is not a substitute for a
“full” search (especially where protectable rights arise through use).  Also searches should be evaluated by qualified counsel (which might be you).

Also, the metasearch is only as accurate and fast as the underlying government searches.