Re:The Slants Win Supreme Court Battle Over Band's Name
by burkaman on Monday June 19, 2017 @12:48PM
(#14588344)
I think trademarks generally take at least 6 months to go through, so this probably isn't a great avenue for trolling. Also, you could already call yourself whatever you want. It's not that much more impactful to be able to put a little TM next to your group's name.
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Re:The Slants Win Supreme Court Battle Over Band's Name
by natch on Monday June 19, 2017 @12:59PM
(#14588431)
I believe you don't need to register in order to use TM(™), you just use it. Once you've registered, you use ®.
Re:The Slants Win Supreme Court Battle Over Band's Name
by openasocket on Monday June 19, 2017 @01:00PM
(#14588435)
It could actually be used against racists, right? You could trademark a bunch of offensive terms and then sue alt-right types for trademark infringement whenever they use those terms in print or something. IANAL and only have a basic understanding of trademark law, so I'm probably missing something.
Re:The Slants Win Supreme Court Battle Over Band's Name
by antognini on Monday June 19, 2017 @01:12PM
(#14588550)
I think you have to actually be using the terms in some bona fide business context for them to be eligible for trademark protection. It's different from patent protection, where you can just sit on a patent without using it.
Re:The Slants Win Supreme Court Battle Over Band's Name
by icebraining on Monday June 19, 2017 @03:44PM
(#14589825)
You also don't become an "owner" of the word, you just get an exclusive right over its commercial use on a specific sector.