Cease and Desist from Company that Copied My Trademark

[luckysylvester]

My question involves business law in the state of: ny,nj,ne

I resigned from a product sales and marketing company three years ago. As per my employment agreement, I waited one full year and then started a similar company. A year into it, March of 2012 my former employer discovered what I was doing and tried some unsuccessful legal tactics to stop me. That same month he discovered I had failed to trademark my name and he went out and trademarked it. He actually used my stylized logo in the trademark. The letter he sent to me and my attorney and the date he filed for the trademark are one day apart. We sell our product nationally. Do I have any recourse?

[eerelations]

Nope, this is perfectly legal.

[aardvarc]

Not unless you're able to build a time machine and go back in time and correctly trademark your name.

I had failed to trademark my name

Bet that won't happen again. But sadly, your failure to do so leaves the door open to someone else willing to file the correct paperwork and make it theirs. If you've got an attorney for your business, rake them over the coals about why they failed to advise you of the pitfalls of failing to register. This is Business Law 101 stuff.

[jk]

actually, the OP does have a argument of trademark infringement. The rights in a mark are gained on use of the mark in commerce, not registration. The OP will have an uphill battle due to the other party having registered the mark and the OP failing to contest it's registration during the period allowed to contest the registration although that has not necessarily closed yet. Application for a registration does not result in an automatic granting of the registration and the process is not instantaneous.

OP may still be within the window to contest the acceptance of the registration.

Even if there is a problem with the trademark claim, there is a likelihood of copyright violations due to the use of the OP's artwork (the logo)(presuming OP does own the rights to the artwork)


here is an excerpt from concerning trademarks

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metasch.../domain/tm.htm

Although registration with the PTO is not required for a trademark to be protected, registration does confer a number of benefits to the registering party. 15 U.S.C. � 1051. As described above, registration gives a party the right to use the mark nationwide, subject to the limitations noted above. 15 U.S.C. � 1072. Registration constitutes nationwide constructive notice to others that the trademark is owned by the party. Registration enables a party to bring an infringement suit in federal court. 15 U.S.C. � 1121. Registration allows a party to potentially recover treble damages, attorneys fees, and other remedies. Finally, registered trademarks can, after five years, become "incontestable," at which point the exclusive right to use the mark is conclusively established. 15 U.S.C. � 1065.

I am curious as to why, if the OP has legal counsel, he has not asked his lawyer about this situation. It is confusing law to comprehend and without the ability to review all of the facts involved, impossible to give a definite answer to most questions.

So, with that said, OP needs to speak to his legal counsel about the matter. Only after researching the matter can it be determined if the OP has any avenues to dispute the trademark registration. As I said, if the OP does actually own the rights to the artwork, he needs to look into registration of his copyrights to ensure he can take all advantages of the laws to defend his rights in the work and then, go after the bad guy for using his copyrighted image.

[luckysylvester]

You are not very informed and certainly not helpful

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Thank you. You are terrific

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Thanks for an uninformed nothing

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The second response wasnt meant for you

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You should read up on law before responding