register trade mark – My user name on Facebook happens to be a registered trademark for a restaurant…?
My user name on Facebook happens to be a registered trademark for a restaurant...?
They sent me this email:
"You are using our registered trademark business name as your user name here on Facebook. I just wanted to let you know that we will be taking steps with Facebook to try and reclaim our name. It will help matters if you deactivate your account or if you contact Facebook to see if they will let you select a different user name so we can rightfully use our ****** name."
Can they make me change my user name even though I have had this user name for well over a year?
Patent, trademark and copyrights have been used interchangeably by a lot of people without really realizing that each term is different from the others. Although all of it protects the creative and intellectual rights of a person or a company, each term is inherently separate from the others.
Here is a general comparison of the three.
Patent
Patent refers to the exclusive rights given by the State to an inventor for a limited amount of time in exchange for the disclosure of the invention.
Normally, a patent application contains claims defining the invention that should be new, inventive, useful and industrially applicable.
The exclusive rights given to a patentee protects his/her invention from being made, used, sold or distributed without his/her permission.
The following are the different types of patents:
• Provisional patents – A provisional patent application (PPA) is used when you have an idea but do not have the resources needed for filing a patent. This will establish a date of application. Just be careful as the actual patent should be exactly the same as the provisional patent.
• Utility patents – This is the most common patent which is usually valid for about 20 years except for drugs, medical equipment and devices, etc.
• Plant patents – Cover plant varieties which have been asexually produced. This includes seedlings, hybrids, etc.
• Design patents – Covers new original ornamental design for a product to be manufactured.
Trademark
This refers to a distinctive logo or indicator that is being used by an individual, company or other entities to identify that the product or services with which the trademark can be seen comes from a unique source, and separates that product or service from other entities.
Trademark is an intellectual property, usually a name, word, phrase, design, image, logo or a combination of said elements.
Trademarks are usually assigned the following symbols:
• TM – Unregistered trademark. This is a mark used to promote or brand products.
• SM – Unregistered service mark. This is a mark used to promote or brand services.
• ® - Registered Trademark
Copyright
Copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive right in relation to that work for a certain period of time. This should include publication, distribution, and adaptation.
After the period lapses, the work is said to enter public domain.
Examples of works where copyright is applicable to are music, movies, software, paintings, drama, books and many more others.
Copyright applies to all expressible ideas or information which is substantive, discrete and fixed in a medium.
Copyright also recognize the moral right of the creator to be credited for his work.
It has been internationally standardized and the exclusive rights to a work can last fifty to even a hundred years after the creator’s death, or a shorter period of time for anonymous and corporate authorship.
However, even if there is a copyright, it cannot cover the whole subject matter. For example, with regard to a copyrighted book; other entities cannot copy the wordings from the said book. But they are free to read the book and publish some of the idea or concepts in their own interpretation and words.
About The Author
Visit our website at http://www.attorneyservicesetc.com/practice_area/Intellectual-Property-Defined.html to help you understand patent, trademark and copyright. Call our toll free number for legal assistance.
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January 26th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
It depends on what the name is and how long they have been in business for. Honestly, if you have had it for over a year and they are barely noticing it, it's not like you did it on purpose to steal it from anyone. And the fact that they were rude about it, I say keep it. They can come up with something different. Besides, after some amount of time, every single user name will be used to some extent. Now don't tell them to take or hike or anything, but tell them that they have no right to be rude. It's not as if you were researching restaurants and decided to jack their name.
Best of luck!
January 26th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
I don't really know about trademarks.
If life was fair, it would be decided by who came up with the name first. If the company has been around longer than your profile, they have a legal right to it.
If you came up with it, it would seem fair for you to keep it. But, then again, life isn't fair. Since they're trademarked and you aren't, they may force you to change.
In my opinion, they could always change some part of the name they enter so they could put it on Facebook. It would only have to be one character different. Plus, I don't think anyone HAS rights on Facebook. It's at the discretion of the Admins.
Plus, the e-mail sounds completely rude. The could've at least said "please", right?
For internet domains, I know that if someone is using your business name as their website, and you want to use it, you are S.O.L.. You'd have to pay the person to give you that website name, and they can charge whatever they want.
Maybe it's like that on Facebook?
Good luck!
January 26th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Tell 'em you'll change it – for a price. Otherwise, I doubt that trademarks extend to Facebook usernames and they're sol.
January 26th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
try just hyphenating it or adding a couple of numbers at the end of the name then it wont be exact for example say it was macdonalds put macdonalds725 without spaces you should be fine then
January 26th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
boycott