[invoman]

So, my question is:

Does this guy have a leg to stand on? I live in a different state. TESS shows nothing.

I told him to get a lawyer...

Any FReeper lawyers willing to guess at a good response to this?

[ladyinred]

Not a lawyer, but my stepson had the same thing happen to him concerning the name of his musical band who had a website for booking information.
He wrote a sarcastic email back, and never heard from them again. This may be real, or it may be a hoax!

[invoman]

bttt

[JAWs]

Well, I'm not a lawyer, (yet) but I have a bad feeling...

When did you start using your name. Was his trademark registered afterwards? If so, can you prove you were using the name before.

Also 'Minnesota Fishing' sounds generic. I wonder how many other people are using it.

My advice, get a lawyer who works with intelectual property... ASAP.

[agarrett]

  When did e-mail become an acceptable means for delivering legal papers?

Drew Garrett

[Aegedius]

I'm not a lawyer, either, but I have had encounters on both sides of this issue. (1) The trademark laws are only to prevent confusion in the marketplace, so if you are selling raincoats marked Minnesota Fishing, and he is selling fishhooks marked the same; no one would confuse the two products, and so he doesn't have a case. (2) If you used the mark nationwide before he did, then it doesn't matter if he registered it with the Feds, it is still yours and he has to back off.

[Otis Mukinfus]

I went to the United States Patent and Trademark Office web site and looked for Minnesota Fishing and registration number 29748 and found nothing.

Here's the URL:

http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm

This doesn't mean that I am counseling you in any way.

[Gorzaloon]

SCAM!! SCAM!!!

From my ISP:

Greetings! Many domain-name registrants are receiving "Domain Dispute Notification" mailings from an entity identifying itself as "XChange Dispute Resolution." The mailings FALSELY state that XChange is an "ICANN authorized arbitrator" (they are NOT) and that the registrant must mail in a "security deposit fee" to defend ownership of the domain name. A scanned copy of the deceptive mailings is available at: http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-exh-08apr02.htm Registrants who receive the notice should contact an appropriate governmental law enforcement/consumer protection agency to report the incident. You should NOT send money as requested by this notice, as this is a complete scam. If you have any doubt of the legitimacy of ANY mailing or email, regarding your domain name, please contact admin@ for help. Thank you!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I'm no attorney (thank the Lord!) but if I were looking for advice on a similar issue, I would heed tracers's advice in reply #31. It sounds spot on!

[Swordmaker]

I did a search on his site for the phrase "Minnesota fishing" and found not one hit.

His site is "Fishing Minnesota ®" and that is what he is claiming is a 'registered trademark'. The positioning of the two words in that reverse order MAY be a copyrightable and/or a trademarkable phrase... but I doubt it. It certainly does not permit him to control the usage of "Minnesota fishing" anywhere and everywhere it might occur.

The use of a fictitious business name such as "Minnesota Fishing Company" gives the holder of that fictitious name the right to prevent OTHER businesses from using "Minnesota Fishing Company" but not any of the words or combinations of words that are not the complete business name, i.e. "Fishing", "Company", "Fishing Company" and "Minnesota Fishing" ARE NOT protected.

[Swordmaker]

Note the third listing on this search taken from the Secretary of State of Minnesota's official web site:

---------------------------

BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS INQUIRY

   DA Home   UCC   Business Services   Account   Session Briefcase   Help/FAQs   About   Login  

NAME AVAILABILITY SEARCH

All name availability checks are preliminary, and we advise that you not move forward with any business use of the name or process any government forms until you have confirmation your name has been filed.
This search was performed on 4/15/2002 20:22 with the following search parameter:
PROPOSED NAME : Minnesota Fishing
click here for Entity Type ID definitions.

Records 201 to 240 of 401        >">  

ORG ID	Name	Entity Type ID	City	State	Cross Reference
1H-47	Minnesota Fish and Wildlife Employees Association	NP	St Paul	MN
94043	MINNESOTA FISHERIES	AN	Anoka	MN
29748	Minnesota Fishing & logo design	TM
1P-702	Minnesota Fishing Federation	NP	Grand Rapi	MN
1V-326	The Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame	NP	Walker	MN
1I-468	Minnesota Fishing Museum & Education Center	NP	St Cloud	MN

[boris]

For years, IBM fought against being called "Big Blue."

There was a fellow who refurbished and remarketed used IBM equipment. He called his company "Big Blue Enterprises" and was in business for years. Then he received a letter from IBM's lawyers. He folded, because he just didn't have the resources to fight.

And as I am fond of retelling, Oleg Cassini sent a menacing letter to JPL, reminding it that "Cassini" was its trademark. Evidently they assumed that the spacecraft was named after the designer, and never heard of the astronomer...

--Boris

[SwinusMaximus]

He's fullashit. And beside that he doesn't know the proper Latin plural form of medium. Whadda loser!

I think you can probably torque his nuts by reporting him to your ISP and his ISP. Most ISPs take a very dim view of their wire being used to threaten someone, particularly if the claim is a bogus one.

[far sider]

"Today I received a threatening e-mail: " It has come to our attention that you are using the term "threatening e-mail" in your correspondence. That is a registered trademark. Please remove the term immediately from all materials or mediums where you may be using it, or action will be taken to the full extent of the law. You are responsible for any damages and any deceptive practices damages as well as monetary awards to World Wide WebResults the courts may order due to your misleading use of this trademarked name. You have 3 working days to comply or further action will be initiated.

[Xenalyte]

When you say "title," do you mean the words that come up in the very top bar of the browser window, to the far left of the maximize/minimize buttons? Or is he talking about (for instance) the "title" such as "Free Republic"?