On Tue, Jun 4, 2013 at 11:20 PM, Chris Mear <[email protected]<https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/402/?source=na&hr=1&hl=en-GB>> wrote:
> On 4 Jun 2013, at 20:03, Alfredo Abambres > <[email protected]<https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/402/?source=na&hr=1&hl=en-GB> > > wrote: > > > Was the OpenWave logo submitted to the organization responsible for > > certification of TM or R in the US or any other country by Google or > Apache? > > > > If not, then we cannot (legally) use the TM symbol or the "trademark" > word. > > The TM symbol is specifically for use on unregistered trademarks: > > > http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/TrademarkSymbolsFactSheet.aspx On Tuesday, 4 June 2013, Alfredo Abambres wrote: > Chris: thanks for the link. > > Copy/pasting the first point of the page: > > 1. What does the symbol TM mean? > > The symbol TM is used to provide notice of a claim of rights in a > trademark. A TM is usually used in connection with an unregistered > trademark and is used to inform potential infringers that a term, slogan, > logo, or other indicator is being claimed as a trademark. Use of the symbol > TM does not guarantee that the owner's mark will be protected under > trademark laws. > > --- > > It seems that we can use the TM if an "object" _is being claimed as a > trademark_, however it doesn't guarantee any legal protection. > > So, my questions now are: What "is being claimed" means? Usage of the > "mark" constitutes a "claim"? Or "is being claimed" means that "someone > initiated a formal registration process for that mark"? Nothing to do with formal registration (AFAIK. IANAL.). Rather, we are making a public statement every time we use those marks that "we believe these names/logos uniquely identify this particular product, and we think this is important". That's all the claim is. In the future, if somebody else tries to use those marks in a damaging/fraudulent way, we have some evidence we can point back to. We can show that we've been using those names/logos as trademarks; the fact that we put 'TM' next to them every time is a demonstration of that. This doesn't provide the same level of protection as an official registration. But part of trademark law (and which is different from copyright and patent law) is that you can claim a company has 'abandoned' a trademark if they can't show evidence of using and protecting the trademark. Using 'TM' helps us build up evidence that we are using and protecting the trademark, without having to go through the (expensive, time-consuming) process of registration. Chris
