Re: Branding of GNOME-hosted Tomboy Online

[Nathan Willis <nwillis glyphography com>]

On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 9:20 AM, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier <jzb zonker net> wrote:

Is the Tomboy name trademarked, and is there any potential issue with
the trademark for the Tomboy name / brand?

Despite by no means being a lawyer, I did *just* hear a talk on this very subject from the SFLC, so I wanted to chime in for the record: a trademark is "created" instantaneously the moment it is used to promote a product/service.  It is also limited in power to a particular industry and geographic locale, insofar as that context makes it clear what product or service the mark refers to.  Which is relevant for an existing-common-word mark like Tomboy.


Whether or not a mark _registered_ with the USPTO doesn't affect its validity; it just allows you to take lawsuits to federal court and some other lawyerly distinctions.  But the mark stands or falls based on whether you really do use it and whether it creates a distinct brand in the mind of the consumer.


In this case, the USPTO has 61 trademarks on file that include or are the word "Tomboy" -- several of which are dead / abandoned.  Only one seems to have anything to do with software, and it's a web-ad-delivery-package and a particular logo.  Doesn't sound dangerous to me.


So in short, the project has been using the name Tomboy with a specific meaning, continuously, for six or seven (?) years, and it's nothing like any other "Tomboy" product or service, so it should be in the clear.


Hope that's somewhat helpful....

(All that said, as long as I'm above ground for the moment, I personally like the "notes"-based URLs, because it's front-end-neutral -- I use Conboy far more frequently than the desktop apps....)

Thanks,
Nate
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