Remember the Got Milk? ad campaign?
A competitor has "Got (most common product abbreviation)?" trademarked, I just learned.
Unaware of their use of the slogan I used the hashtag #gotabbrreviation on social media, not in the context of a question, but rather implying that we've got them.
The owner pm'd me asking to cease and desist but I'd rather not. Should I?
Posted Feb 25, 2018, 9:16 PM UTC
This has nothing to do with copyright, it's a trademark issue. If your competitor trademarked that phrase, and you are using the phrase as a hashtag to promote and sell your competing service or product, you are almost certainly infringing upon their trademark.
Do you think Coca-Cola should be able to use #Pepsi or related trademarks in their tweets without being sued?
Funny how we both used Coke and Pepsi as our examples.
That's great. I didn't even see your reply.
Mine was funnier :p
If your competitor has a registered trademark for the phrase, and you use the phrase, you are infringing on the trademark.
If you do not think it is a valid trademark registration, you can petition to cancel the trademark -- perhaps on the ground that it is purely descriptive.
However, if you continue to use the phrase that is trademarked, you are likely to be successfully sued.
Also, this is not a copyright issue.
I am a bot whose sole purpose is to improve the timeliness and accuracy of responses in this subreddit.
It appears you forgot to include your location in the title or body of your post. Please update the body of your original post to include this information.
Do NOT delete this post - Instead, simply edit the post with the requested information.
Author: u/thingstuff
Title: How restrictive is copyright of a phrase in relation to hashtags?
Original Post:
Remember the Got Milk? ad campaign?
A competitor has "Got (most common product abbreviation)?" trademarked, I just learned.
Unaware of their use of the slogan I used the hashtag #gotabbrreviation on social media, not in the context of a question, but rather implying that we've got them.
The owner pm'd me asking to cease and desist but I'd rather not. Should I?
LocationBot 4.0 | GitHub (Coming Soon) | Statistics | Report Issues
Yes, you should. There's nothing special about hashtags that makes them immune to trademark violations. Your use isn't fair use.
You're in the same industry, you're advertising, you used their trademarked slogan in a non-ironic or normative manner.
It would be one thing for Pepsi, in response to a news story that Coke is using tainted water, to tweet #TasteTheFeeling in the context of commentary. It's another thing for them to simply use #TasteTheFeeling for advertising because "these are common words" and "we didn't bother to check if the phrase was trademarked."
Does it at all matter that we've been using the slogan since before it was trademarked?
Maybe, but if you want to go down that road you will likely need an attorney. When you start using a phrase you normally acquire some common law trademark rights to it, but until you register it you have very limited protection. Registration gives you a strong claim to having been the first to use the term. Related to that if they were using the phrase before you were, even absent registration they would still have a superior claim. The point is since you have been threatened with a lawsuit and it’s clear that they do have a registered trademark, you will need an attorney if you want to fight them.
OK, thanks for your time.
I'll just change it to GET and move on with my life.