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SEO is Trademarked

by kindsvater
4 replies
SEO was trademarked at the US Trademark Office back in 2003. Does that mean no one can have "seo" in a domain? Or everyone referring to SEO on the forum is infringing?

Yes it does. Pay $1000 to my PayPal account immediately or you will be sued ....

Just kidding. Well, not kidding about the trademark. (And not kidding about paying me some bucks!)

Fortunately, the trademark for SEO by AlphaStaff only applies to the service of outsourcing human resources.

PPC is subject to numerous trademarks. Even the word "trademark" has been trademarked! "US" and "USA" are also privately owned trademarks.

These are all live and registered trademarks.

What does all this mean? The next time someone claims you are violating their trademark because a word they have trademarked appears in your domain or website, that is completely unrelated to the accuser, don't immediately roll over. Except for few very famous trademarks, remind them a trademark is specific to a limited type of goods or services. If you are not selling or promoting the same type of goods or services there can be multiple businesses using the same name.

Otherwise, their claim of "trademark" infringement would be infringing on the owner of the "trademark" trademark.

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#seo #trademarked
  • Profile picture of the author davezan
    Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

    What does all this mean? The next time someone claims you are violating their trademark because a word they have trademarked appears in your domain or website, that is completely unrelated to the accuser, don't immediately roll over. Except for few very famous trademarks, remind them a trademark is specific to a limited type of goods or services. If you are not selling or promoting the same type of goods or services there can be multiple businesses using the same name.
    Bolded some parts for emphasis. OTOH, this shouldn't be treated as necessarily
    an excuse to "ride" on someone else's hard work for your benefit.

    If anything, it depends on usage or context.
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    David

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    • Profile picture of the author GforceSage
      If a word or phrase is deemed to be part of everyday vernacular, then the use of such phrase would not have any legal weight. People may be granted a copyright/trademark on a term or phrase because they were the first to ask, but good luck ever trying to win a case against others using it. It won't happen.

      For example, Donald Trump wanted exclusive rights to the term, " You're Fired." I think a lawyer probably let him know that even if he was granted the legal paper to supposedly own the rights, there is no way he could ever win a lawsuit against others who used this term. It has been around too long and has established roots across America.. It would be like trying to say I want file for the rights to the word, "The." The belongs to me.

      A word or phrase has to be new, unique, and part of a revenue stream being used now in order to have any legal weight to it. If you don't protect a word or phrase early on, it is often ruled to be a "Common part of the vernacular," and thus belongs to everyone regardless of who tries to file for the rights to it.
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      • Profile picture of the author payment proof
        Originally Posted by GforceSage View Post

        If a word or phrase is deemed to be part of everyday vernacular, then the use of such phrase would not have any legal weight.
        Thank gosh. How many of us have made posts with SEO in it?
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  • Profile picture of the author JerrickYeoh
    Is that mean that we can use Apple domain name to selling real apple rather than iPhone and Mac products ?
    SEO is in trademark then i believe lot of company in real trouble ....
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    Cheap .COM and .SG domain name
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