Nestlé has lost its appeal of OHIM’s upholding of an opposition to Nestlé’s application to register Quicky for its chocolate-flavored Nesquick product. However, Belgium Quick Restaurants SA, which uses Quick and Quickies for its hamburgers, opposed claiming Nestlé’s Quicky would cause confusion among the public, that Nestlé’s Quicky could cause confusion in the minds of Belgium consumers.
The European Court of First Instance agreed with OHIM, and rejected Nestlé’s appeal on Wednesday.
…or close enough.
According to this article, actor and comedian Damon Wayans has been engaged with a battle at the USPTO to register the mark Nigga for a line of clothing and for retail store services.
According to Wayans’s applications, Wayans wants to dress customers in 14 kinds of Nigga attire from tops to bottoms, and use the controversial mark on “clothing, books, music and general merchandise,” as well as movies, TV and the internet. However, the USPTO has at least twice rejected Wayan’s application on the grounds that the mark is “immoral or scandalous”.
According to the Examining Attorney, “While debate exists about in-group uses of the term, ‘nigga’ is almost universally understood to be derogatory.”
Experts differ on Wayans’ chances of success. Some believe that this is akin to the recent registration of Dykes on Bikes.
The effort to commercialize “nigga” drew a sharp response from a black school official who participated in a forum about the word earlier this month at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
“I don’t care for it in any form,” said Dr. Lonnie Williams, associate vice chancellor for student affairs. “Either way you pronounce it, spell it, anything associated with it — I find it offensive.”
If Wayans succeeds in persuading the Trademark Office to permit the mark, he may have to deal with Keon Rhodan, a 29-year-old entrepreneur in Charleston, South Carolina, who has been using “Nigga” on a line of T-shirts, hoodies and other attire for six years in a part-time, trunk-of-his-car business.
Rhodan attempted to register “Nigga’Clothing” as a trademark in 2001 and was denied by the Trademark Office.
“They said it was disparaging,” he said.
Rhodan, who is black, said that he’s sold around 2,000 of the shirts at events. When he began selling the shirts, emblazoned with the term “Nigga,” he thought he would take criticism, especially from older people.
“I was in the mall with one of the shirts on, and an old lady said, ‘Where did you get that shirt from?’” he said, expecting the worst. “She followed me to the car and bought five shirts for her grandchildren.”
Rhodan believes that affectionate use of the term within the black community should make it an acceptable mark, but the Trademark Office has thus far has not been persuaded by that argument.
The EU’s Office of Harmonisation for the Internal Market (“OHIM”) has refused a trademark application to register the mark Binladin for clothing. OHIM refused registration on the grounds that “the name was contrary to public policy and accepted principles of morality.”
The applicant is Falcon Sporting Goods. The Binladin trademark is closely connected toYeslam Binladin, who is connected to the Falcon Group, and half-brother of notorious Osama Bin Laden.
BinLadin, who deliberately writes his name with different spelling to distinguish himself from his terrorist brother, applied to register the trademark in February 2001.
Swiss authorities approved the application many times before 9/11 attacks, which confirmed Osama Bin LadenÂ’s disrepute across the world. But post 9/11, the Swiss authorities cancelled the Binladin brand name.
Local New York knitting shop owner, Elissa Meyrich, is taking on … well…the world, or a small portion off it. In 1997, she claims she began a knitting club and called it Stitch and Bitch. Now that such knitting clubs have become en vogue throughout the country, Meyrich is taking action.
First, she insisted that Yahoo! send a cease-and-desist letter to Yahoo! knitting groups that use the name “Stitch and Bitch”.
Lexington’s Stitch ‘N’ Bitch group didn’t have to change its Web address but has changed its Yahoo groups site and added a “Censored” bar to its logo.
“Sew Fast Sew Easy are shooting themselves in the foot,” said the Lexington group’s co-founder Zabet Stewart. She said the company’s legal moves have alienated many of its potential customers.
“As for who should get the trademark, I don’t know enough about the law, but it seems to me that ‘stitch ‘n’ bitch’ is in common enough use,” that it’s in the public domain, Stewart said. Also, she said, many Stitch ‘N’ Bitch groups are simply social clubs that don’t compete for Sew Fast’s business and don’t derive any monetary profit from the name.
Yahoo sites for groups in Fort Campbell and Louisville have been discontinued, though it’s unclear whether the trademark tiff is the reason.
Rebellious stitchers are rallying around knitting guru Debbie Stoller, who in November began a legal battle to strip Meyrich of her trademark.
One must wonder whether there is any financial or business justification for these legal maneuvers…perhaps.
Fifa has secured a landmark victory in a World Cup trademark row with confectionery company Ferrero.
Ferrero challenged EU rules banning companies unofficially associating themselves with next year’s World Cup in Germany.
However, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market ruled its attempts to register 11 marks, which included terms such as “World Cup Germany”, were unlawful.
The OHIM has also ruled against the commercial use of the internet domain name www.wm2006.com by a sports betting company, and confirmed that only Fifa’s commercial partners may use World Cup trademarks.
DuPont’s John P. O’Brien. Patent, that is. On February 14th – yes, Valentine’s Day, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued the 7th millionth patent for “polysaccharide fibers” and a process for their production. The fibers have cotton-like properties, are biodegradable and are useful in textile applications.
Some other random facts:
- Patent No. 1 million was issued on August 8, 1911, for a tubeless vehicle tire;
- Patent No. 3 million issued 26 years later on September 12, 1961, to an inventor at the General Electric Co., for an automated system that translated letters, numbers and symbols to data processing code; and
- Patent No. 6 million issued on December 7, 1999, to 3Com Corporation’s Palm Computing for its HotSync® technology.
I’m sure they’ll keep coming.