Trademarking Acronyms & Divulging Information

[lewnytewny]

I'd like a little help with my trademark. I have an acronym I want to trademark lets say: MEOWMEOWMEOW - do I have to tell the uspto.gov what it stands for if I'm already telling them what it it is used for? Now this meowmeowmeow happens to also be my business name. Can I just go to my local court house and have it spelled-out there to protect it? OK let me make this complicated. If the government chooses not to grant my TM on some basis other that originality -and I'm already using it in commerce [let's say they consider it lewd] - can someone else come behind me and hijack my acronym and apply for it under some other use? I would just like to be able to use this completely original work in commerce without having to worry about it being rejected and losing my edge. Sorry I ran on - it just seems complicated. Thanks everyone for your help! The Warrior Forum gets better every day!

[Gene Pimentel]

Whether or not you have officially registered your term as a Trademark, if you have solid evidence that you were the first to use it in your type of business, you automatically have TM rights. Likewise, if someone else can provide evidence that they used it first in that line of business, THEY have the TM rights. Officially registering your trademark is simply one form of evidence, but not entirely necessary.

This is not legal advice of course, as I am not an attorney :-)

[Don Schenk]

Originally Posted by lewnytewny

If the government chooses not to grant my TM on some basis other that originality -and I'm already using it in commerce [let's say they consider it lewd] - can someone else come behind me and hijack my acronym and apply for it under some other use? I would just like to be able to use this completely original work in commerce without having to worry about it being rejected and losing my edge. !

You need an intellectual property attorney to advise you. Patent and Trademark law is a complicated specialty. Any advice you get here at the WF about trademark law from us non-attornies is likely to be incorrect.

I've looked into registering a trademark with the US Patent Office, even spent some time talking with one of the intellectual property attornies at the firm where my wife is an attorney. The process is expensive, but worth it if you have a good name. Most of the fees go to the government not the attorney. I was surprised.

In doing trademark searches at the uspto website I did see many cases where the same trademark name is given to different companies provided the companies are not in the same line of business. I was surprised by that too.

But then it doesn't take much to surprise me.

:-Don

BTW Your first session with an attorney is usually free so they can figure out what you need and how to help you.

BTW 2 - This topic has been covered several times before on this forum. Did you try a search?

BTW 3 Gene wrote, "if you have solid evidence that you were the first to use it in your type of business, you automatically have TM rights." That is not what the attorney told me. Imagine calling yourself "Coca Cola" and getting a way with it for a while.

[Gene Pimentel]

Originally Posted by Don Schenk

BTW 3 Gene wrote, "if you have solid evidence that you were the first to use it in your type of business, you automatically have TM rights." That is not what the attorney told me. Imagine calling yourself "Coca Cola" and getting a way with it for a while.

Hey Don, I said if you had solid evidence that you were the first to use it in your particular line of business. Obviously, nobody can claim they were using "Coca Cola" for selling carbonated beverages before the Coca Cola company did.

There are other overriding aspects to Trademarks, such as predominance in the public eye.

More: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/register.jsp
and: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/index.jsp