Fergie's Tech Blog

CastleCops Under Attack From... A Trademark Troll

My esteemed colleague, Alex Eckleberry, writes over on the Sunbelt Blog:

You’ve probably heard of “patent trolls”— people or companies whose entire money-making purpose is to sue companies over patents that are questionably related to their own patents.

Well, there’s also trademark trolls. And one such fellow is Leo Stoller (BoingBoing calls him a “trademark bully”). Stoller makes money by suing companies over the use of trademarks like “Stealth”, “Chestnut” and “Stradivarius”.

Now, there’s a common misconception about trademarks — that one has exclusive use or ownership over a particular word. In fact, that’s not correct. You may own a registered trademark, but that doesn’t stop someone else from using the word, so long as there isn’t the likelihood of confusion. It’s why (as this New York Times article points out) Delta Faucets and Delta Airlines co-exist peacefully. Who is going to ever confuse Delta Faucets with Delta Airlines?

Anyway, Leo Stoller apparently believes he has exclusive ownership to the word “Castle” and is going after CastleCops to “license” the use of the word “Castle”.

posted by Fergie @ 6/27/2006 09:24:00 AM