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In lugnet.publish, main@appstate.edu (Thomas Main) writes:
> Todd Lehman wrote:
> > As awesome as it would be, I fear that if it was really used for
> > something real, it'd probably be a heapin' helpin' of double
> > trademark dilution (LEGO™ & LALAPALOOZA™). :-{ :-{ Sure would
^^^^^^^^^^^
(I think I misspelled this)
> > be awesome though!
>
> Well, since lollapalooza is a word in the English language, I don't see
> how it could be trademarked.
Trademarks don't have to be names or coined words. Actually, any word can
pretty much be a trademark. For example, all of the following examples are
well-known trademarks:
Coined or derived words:
Xerox, Timex, Windex, Duracell, Polaroid, Kodachrome, Jell-O,
Cheerios, Rollerblade, FedEx, Microsoft
Acronyms & partial acronyms:
IBM, UPS, CNN, ESPN, NBC, Nabisco, Necco, Lego
Names:
McDonald's, Rolls-Royce, Kellogg's, Gilette, Campbell's,
Black & Decker, Samuel Adams, Charles Schwab, Miller
Regular words:
Visa, Greyhound, Playboy, Ivory, Dial, Tide, Time, Discover, Subway
Pairs of regular words:
Life Savers, Gold Medal, American Express, Band-Aid
What you claim ownership of when you own a trademark is basically the use of
the mark in a certain area or set of areas. For example, BLOCKBUSTER is a
registered trademark owned by Blockbuster Entertainment Inc. for the
category of (among many others) "retail store services provided by means of
a global computer network in the field of audio and video software and
hardware, games, video cassettes, music cassettes and compact discs, and
related home entertainment products and equipment." BLOCKBUSTER is also a
registered trademark owned by Viacom Inc. for the category of "television
broadcasting services."
LOLLAPALOOZA is a registered trademark owned by Westbury Knitwear Company
for the category of "men's, women's and children's sweaters." SOFAPALOOZA
is a registered trademark owned by The Living Room, Inc. for the category of
"retail furniture stores services."
LOLLAPALOOZA doesn't appear to be a registered trademark for anything in the
areas of large outdoor events (although I admit I'm not very experienced
with using the PTO search engine). It might still be an unregistered
trademark, though, and whether the owner felt other uses were infringement
might depend on whether they felt that Lollapalooza applied to the category
of any large outdoor event or to large outdoor music events in particular.
Anyway -- IANAL*, so take this all with a grain of salt. But in any case,
having spoken about trademark issues with two of TLG's corporate attorneys
in the past, I'd say that an organized event called LEGOPALOOZA would
probably be viewed as trademark dilution by TLG, and they'd probably have to
ask that the name be changed -- unless perhaps they wanted to help sponsor
it or something. . . . I suppose it would never hurt to write them and ask
what their feelings on the name would be.
--Todd
* I Am Not A Lawyer
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