Michael Snow wrote:
Well, nothing in the classes of goods covered by this trademark application should keep us from being able to register our own trademark. So this seems to be more a minor nuisance, rather than a fraudulent registration we would *need* to get overturned promptly.
I agree. To register the trademark for our own "business" (online & print publications, CD-editions) is much more urgent. If someone catches these fields before us, we _really_ have a problem.
I'm assuming that German trademark practices aren't that different from the US, since international agreements in the field mean that at least some basic principles should be consistent.
It still would have been nice to make a timely objection, but at least this Jörg Nagel isn't blatantly infringing our trademark. It does make it difficult if we want to distribute Wikipedia-related merchandise in Germany, though.
A colleague of mine who is a lawyer told me that even this would not necessarily constitute a problem. We would not be allowed to found a T-Shirt company "Wikipedia sports wear", but in his opinion (why do lawyers always have "opinions") this trade mark doesn't prevent us from producing t-shirts and other merchandise with the wikipedia logo and name on it.
I wonder if that's what he had in mind, and what he intends to do with the trademark. Make a profit by selling it to us, or by forcing us to use his firm's services for merchandising?
One or the other IMO.
I'd be a little surprised if he intends to start a Wikipedia brand of clothing on his own. Was this application triggered by some of our German publicity, I wonder? Just some random thoughts.
Seems so - the application was just one week after the big media echo.
greetings, elian