Can i trademark a name of an Institution ?
By Yahoo User • Category: Trademarks How-To?I’m trying to figure out how to trademark the title of an institution that is no long open, but its name is still in use today by a group of people that are improperly using it and profiting from it. My goal in trade marking the name is to stop these people from diminishing the name. Can i trade mark the name and how do i go about doing so?So say i start selling shirts and hats with the name on it, then any other person selling the same items can not because of confusion. Correct? Also how can you control people using the name all together, like an unbrella ffect, that anyone wanting to use the name must go through me?
No you can’t unless you have a “real” product to go with the trademark.The law require you to have a product and to be on the market. You cannot ask and be granted for a trademark if you don’t plan to use it for real.Another thing is that even if you have a product (let’s say a soda) then you cannot prevent the use of the trademark unless the other people sell sodas too. For example you sell sodas and this other people sell condoms, then you have no case because your product cannot be confused with their product; but if they try to sell sodas then you can make them stop because people might confuse your soda with theirs.
The above answer is almost right, and certainly is on the right track…but:No one may trademark the name of an institution except in the context of using the name as the identifier of the source of products. For example, if BlahBlah College was defunct, and you wanted to trademark it, you would not be able to, unless you were marketing (and already had sold) BlahBlah College brand bookbags - and then your trademark would be limited to the category of bookbags…if someone else offered BlahBlah sausages, unless they were trying to profit from your branding, perhaps through use of similar colors or packaging (so called “trade dress”), they’d be able to use the name.Diminishing the name alone isn’t enough. And if the other party is already using the name for something and you try to establish a trademark in their category, you may be found to be the infringer. The test isn’t first to register, it’s first to use in commerce.