So is it okay for me to call my mastodon server twitter now?
important for anybody following this topic to also know that “hundreds of trademarks” can sometimes just mean that there’s a few trademarks in each class. Trademarks in the US are divided into classes, so that two companies that do different things can still be named the same or similar.
The article still has a point, in that similar software companies like Meta and Microsoft have trademarks for “X,” but if your PVC pipe company is called X, you might not have a good case against Twitter because who is getting confused between PVC pipes and social media?
“Your honor, let the record state that there is a common saying to the effect that “the internet is a series of tubes”. Now, PVC pipes are also a variety of tube. Therefore…”
The Olympics did send a cease and desist to Olympic Provisions (a salami maker in Portland, Oregon). So they had to change their name to Olympia Provisions. Perhaps the Olympics felt threatened since people often confuse ‘finocchiona salami’ with ‘finishing a giant slalom’.
My vet clinic I work at was contacted by Red Cross some years ago damanding that we change our logo becuase it had a red plus sign in it. It was the most ridiculous thing. How did they even find out about us? we are no big time clinic, only people in our city are going to know who we are. We had that logo for a long, long time. It was just bizarre.
Isn’t that a common symbol for all medical related things?
Apple tries to trademark their apple logo, not the bitten one a full apple in my country…
