Question

Topic: Copywriting

Trademark Survey/issue (20 Or More People Needed)

Posted by Anonymous on 11/17/2008 at 7:17 PM ET 50 Points
(50 points to each of the first 50 people who respond)

I have a general question related to a trademark infringement case I am working on. Being the owner of a company, I have a limited budget so I want to ensure that I have all my ducks in a row.

Ideally, I need to send out a survey to a random group of people so if any of you have an option for doing that, please let me know.

My questions is, if you saw our Web Site and company name, connect us dot net, and then searched for our company, connect us (one word), then saw that Harris, a large company in Florida has a product called the connect us product, launched about two months ago, do you feel the average person could be confused.

I won't prep you with two many specifics. My hope is that you will go to our site and then search google for our company name, pull up the other company web page and then let me know your thoughts.

The primary issue here is to determine the liklihood of confusion we need to establish the basis for a legal case. But, please try to look at this as open-minded and objective as possible.

If you have specific details as to why you feel you could be confused, that information could be especially helpful.

Please post clarification questions, if needed.

I may award this to multiple people and hope as many as 20 people respond to this posting, or more.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by darcy.moen on 11/18/2008 at 9:16 AM Member
    I don't think you can patent an idea my man. In your case, you have a domain name dispute as well as a similar product to compete against.

    First off, the domain name dispute is usually settled by sending notice of domain name dispute to ICANN, and sending them a $5,000 check to offset the costs you are going to incurr disputing a company registering a domain name similar to yours. You should do some research about domain names and domain names disputes before you consider this route as really, you have a pretty weak case against a similar domain name being registered.

    As for infringing on your idea to create similar software, well, that's just good old competition at work. As an example, two companies create a 'Forms generator' software package. Both write the software in PHP language, and both software packages enabled Joe Average to create an interactive form witin their web site. Since both companies developed their software independant of each other, and the source code is fundamentaly different, yet both create a similar end result, there is NO CASE for either party.

    Before you waste your time on a survey, call a decent IP lawyer (Intellectual Property Lawyer) and invest one hour of time asking him for a legal opinion. Yes, it costs a bit of money, but I think it would be 300 bucks well spent in your case, and definately get you focused on what you need to focus on.
  • Posted by matthewmnex on 11/20/2008 at 4:55 AM Member
    I recall some weeks ago already commenting on this exact same issue.

    Trade Marks have to be registered. Simple as that. If you have registered your, then you are protected. If you feel the other company has infringed inform the Trade Mark registry office and get a cease and desist order.

    If you have not registered yours, then hurry up and do it :)
  • Posted by matthewmnex on 11/20/2008 at 5:01 AM Member
    Is this you please?

    https://connectus.net/3.html

    If so, I would recommend that rather than wasting time with trade mark concerns, you hire a marketing professional to a). Help you with product development
    B). Re Write the terrible copy on your web site which is completely wishy washy and completely lacks focus.

    Good luck.
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