On 11/7/05, Daniel Mayer maveric149@yahoo.com wrote:
--- Delirium delirium@hackish.org wrote:
What trademark violation is going on here? Trademark law only prohibits commercial use of a trademark for a competing product in the same market.
Trademark law does not only prohibit commercial use. Any use which dilutes a mark in a particular market is a potential violation. Using a mark that implies an official connection when no such connection exists is also a potential violation.
-- mav
There is federal trademark law and there is federal dilution law. Dilution law requires the mark to be "famous", and doesn't require it to be used in a competing sense. However, I believe it relies on the interstate commerce clause (the copyright clause is unlikely to apply), and according to US Code Section 1125 the dilution must be made "on or in connection with any goods or services, or any container for goods". Even then there is still fair use.
So I'm not sure what you mean by "a potential violation", but I can't find any dilution law which regulates non-commercial use. Maybe you could point out some evidence that I just haven't found the law you're talking about.
Anthony