[epub] RE: Trade mark violation?

Hi Dianne

Have you tried searching for “S.R. Hayden” on Google?

Nothing comes up with that name!

You are also probably right in saying that the term is far too general.

Further, has Kendall Summerhawk herself changed the name of her ezine/newsletter?

(I don’t think so).

My take is that this is some spammer / con-person trying on a new stunt:

The giveaway is “Trade Mark / Service Mark Enforcement Department”

Yeah! Right! How many midsize/large companies have that?

Only the majors – Coke / Xerox / IBM / HP / MacDonalds and such - have that luxury.

Or maybe the person is under the delusion that putting the term on their literature / website

constitutes trademark registration. (The confusion sometimes arises from the fact that any “WORK” you publish is automatically considered to be a copyright work by the particular author – the same privilege does not automatically extend to someone who uses a common phrase).

I am not a trademark/IP expert or lawyer, by any means, but have been in business (on the pointy end) with major organisations to know (just common sense) that this person is probably blowing smoke.

Hope this helps

Every Success!

Harry Neelam

From: Dianne Reuby [mailto:d.reuby@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, 11 May 2004 9:23 AM
To: Epub Discussion Group
Subject: [epub] Trade mark violation?

Hi all. I got this email today:

Dear Web site Owner,
it has come to our attention that you are listing one or more articles by Kendall Summerhawk
which include mentioning 'weekly marketing wisdom'.
S.R. Haden Industries owns the web site and service marks to the term
'weekly marketing wisdom'. Kendall Summerhawk and any sites she has her articles on
are in violation of U.S. Trade Mark / Service Mark laws.
We ask that you immediately delete these articles which are in violation of our rights
to that service mark :
http://www.firstwebbuilder.co.uk/startmarketing.html
We thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Yours Truly,
Trade Mark / Service Mark Enforcement Department
S.R. Haden Industries

The page in question has an article (which I have permission to use) by Kendall Summerhawk. Can the phrase "weekly marketing wisdom" really be trade marked? Surely it's too general a term for that. I'm in the UK, but presumably any US trademark laws would be international.

My main question is really - how far should we go in checking out articles supplied by the article banks?

Have a good week all,

Dianne Reuby
First Web Builder
http://www.firstwebbuilder.co.uk
Swindon Virtual Office
http://www.swindonvirtualoffice.co.uk
Free Site Builder
http://www.freesitebuilder.co.uk