Company says it owns Bike Week name

 http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2010/11/24/company-says-it-owns-bike-week-name.html

DAYTONA BEACH -- For a mere $87.50, a little-known New York holding
company last year quietly applied for and was granted the state
trademark for the name "Daytona Beach Bike Week."

Now the business hopes to turn that tiny investment into a potentially
huge payday.

In recent weeks, the company, which operates under several names,
including Mettemp Inc. and Consolidated Distributors Inc., has contacted
area businesses to inform them it is the sole owner of the Daytona Beach
Bike Week name.

A letter circulated on Mettemp's behalf by its Holly Hill affiliate, Joe
Cool Inc., states the company intends to "take all legal actions to
protect its rights" on any businesses that produce T-shirts and other
merchandise bearing the Daytona Beach Bike Week name without its
approval. The letter suggests those actions could include seizing those
"counterfeit goods."

Not so fast, says the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, the group
that has managed the annual Bike Week event through an agreement with
the city since 1988.

"Confiscation action would only be possible with a federal trademark,
which Consolidated does not possess," chamber CEO Larry McKinney wrote
in a letter sent to members Saturday.

The chamber, which produces its own Daytona Beach Bike Week T-shirts and
operates the official Bike Week welcome center and website, has hired
the law firm Cobb Cole to contest Mettemp's claim and block the New York
company's bid to obtain a federal trademark.

Yosef Amar, owner of Joe Cool Inc., said his group's claim to the
trademark rights on the event's name is based on the fact he has been
producing T-shirts and other products with the Daytona Beach Bike Week
name since 1987.

He said in a phone interview that he believes he was the first in the
area to start selling T-shirts bearing the event's name.

Jim Gallagher, a co-owner of Mid-Florida Sportswear, the Daytona Beach
company that prints the official Daytona Beach Bike Week T-shirts for
the chamber, said his company has printed and sold shirts bearing the
event's name continuously since 1977. Gallagher said he believes other
businesses also did so earlier.

Heather Vargas, the board-certified intellectual property attorney
representing the chamber, said Mettemp does not have a legal right to
the Daytona Beach Bike Week name because it isn't something that can be
trademarked

That's because names that are descriptive, as in the case of Daytona
Beach Bike Week, or generic, as in the term Bike Week, cannot be
protected under trademark law, she said.

"Registrations don't mean anything if they're not based on an actual
ownership of the mark," said Vargas, who added, "People have been
printing merchandise with the phrase 'Daytona Beach Bike Week' for decades."

Mark Malek, a trademark attorney with the firm Zies Widerman & Malek in
Melbourne, who is not involved in the case, said obtaining a state
trademark doesn't necessarily guarantee a claim to owning the rights to
a particular name will hold up in court.

For Mettemp's trademark claim to be effective, "the consumer would have
to identify that company as the source of 'Daytona Beach Bike Week,' "
said Malek, and use of that name by "allegedly unauthorized vendors
dilutes the value of their trademark or causes the likelihood of confusion."

Malek added "all you need to do on a state level" to obtain a trademark
"is present a mark, date of first use and a specimen. There is no
rigorous examination procedure."

What's more, there also are common law trademark rights to consider,
which go to the party that can show it was the first to use the name,
Malek said. Even if one can show that, that party could still lose its
rights if it failed to enforce them by allowing others to use that mark
for years without permission.

The trademark application filed by Mettemp in April 2009 only provided a
single specimen as proof of its use of the mark: a logo bearing the
words "Bike Week Joe Cool Inc."

The application was signed by Amar, who identified himself as a vice
president of "Metemp Inc."

The application was approved April 13, 2009.

Amar said his company is asking businesses that want to sell Daytona
Beach Bike Week merchandise to either pay a licensing fee of 20 cents
per product bearing the name, or buy preprinted products his company
makes to resell. Joe Cool sells its T-shirts for $4.50 a piece and heat
transfers for between 85 cents to $1.50 each, Amar said.

David Bakshet, president of Consolidated Distributors, said his company
is prepared to "defend ourselves," including the possibility of filing a
counterclaim "against anyone who damages our business opportunities."

Bakshet, in a telephone interview, described himself as a "trademark
expert" who is a consultant to attorneys but is not one himself. He
declined to provide a resume or proof of what makes him an expert other
than to say, "I've read books and operated trademarks" for years.

Bakshet disputed Vargas' statement that the phrase Daytona Beach Bike
Week cannot be trademarked. "Ask any trademark attorney, 'is Bike Week
with a city's name in it generic?,' " he said.

 
http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2010/11/24/company-says-it-owns-bike-week-name.html

Assclowns like this have been doing this crap for years.

They look around for events, programs, or other things that use common
terms, see if the terms are trademarked, and if they aren't, they file for a
trademark and send a bunch of threatening letters around.

That's basically all they do, much the same as proffessional plaintiffs, who
go around looking for reasons to sue people.

We really need to bring back public beatings for conduct that disrupts the
lives of civil people.

CS

 CS wrote:


Amen. Cane them like spray paint taggers like Singapore.

--
HPT

 
Yeah, his parents claimed he had a learning disability.

Was I the only one who found it amusing that the Singapore authorities had a
viable cure for this particular disability?

CS

 Polarhound wrote:


http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2010/11/24/company-says-it-owns-bike-week-name.html

Oh, a trademark troll.


Prior art.


A little late.


The motive - greed.


Just another reason to keep lawyers employed. Ballmer, Microsoft claimed
Linux violated 235 some software patents, yet failed to identify which. No
longer is it about innovation, but patent and trademark trolling.

Besides, what does this have to do with things of common interest in
Reeky, such as guns, knives, motorcycle oil, bandanas, tyres - sticky
versus hard and dangerous when wet, India built Harleys, etc. ???

--
HPT

If I make it to Daytona, I might call my bike "The Daytona Beach Bike Week
Bike".