Trademarks And Lady Justice Exhibiting Favoritism

Lady Justice: ‘YOU — twerp, SCREW your non-famous trademark! I’ve only an interest in extending my full protections to MAJOR PLAYERS, not you!'”

Now, would you have much confidence in a Lady Justice with a nasty attitude like that? Of course not.

That’s what America has because Lady Justice [Themis] is thumbing her nose at “non-famous” trademarks by giving special prosecutorial consideration to trademark claims where companies that own the marks are famous or widely known.

For example: If software developers decided to hijack your word mark and use it as a descriptive element to invent code for an Application Programming Interface [API], then subsequently stored that code on an internet repository like GitHub for the whole world to see; did you know you’d have few options, if any, to force either the developers or GitHub to remove your mark if your product and services are in a different marketplace than the software developers?

Lady Justice’s Favoritism: What’s an even bigger slap in the face is that if your trademark was not famous, then the courts may use additional leverage to deny your claim. On the other hand, courts tend to favor famous marks allowing such owners a pathway to infringement and subsequently awarding damages.

As you can see, Lady Justice’s scales of justice appear lopsided when it comes to treating all trademark owners with the same dignity and respect. She tends to favor the status quo, more specifically, money over justice and fairness. So, does Lady Justice truly provide blind justice for all who seek her services; I wonder how many people think she’s a fraud?

Something else may interest you | “Trademark Infringement: Everything You Need to Know” Or this, how much a survey would cost for determining the likelihood of trademark confusion. Did you know such costs could run into the tens of thousands.