Trademark 2021

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Where Trademarks are in 2021?

The last year has been a slow down for many business and individuals but not a complete stop for everyone. With many people being laid off and businesses closing; others are using the opportunity to make a name for themselves. One the best ways to protect your companies name is by registering a state Trademark. For example, in the state of Georgia a simple filing of an online form with your business information and paying a small fee can allow someone to register their business with the Georgia Secretary of States office (https://ecorp.sos.ga.gov/TrademarksSearch).

Where did Trademarks get there start?

United States trademarks essentially got their start "in 1791" from " a Massachusetts sailcloth manufacture petitioned for a federal trademark law" (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/publications/landslide/2018-19/march-april/federal-trademark-law/). This did not establish the use of trademarks into common law until around the mid eighteen hundreds. Many iterations of trademark law were made and passed along the federal courts throughout the 1860's and a substantial trademark bill was enacted in the 1870's. The actual use of trademark registration was not prominent until the early 20th century (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/publications/landslide/2018-19/march-april/federal-trademark-law/).

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Trademark controversy?

We all know who Taylor Swift (https://www.taylorswift.com/) (the award winning singer) is and what music she is known for but how many people know of Evermore Park in Utah (https://www.evermore.com/)? Taylor Swift released an album in 2020 called Evermore, which was No.1 on the Billboards charts for serval weeks (during the beginning of 2021) (https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/9509345/taylor-swift-evermore-number-one-billboard-200-third-week/). Unfortunately, the name Evermore was already taken by a Evermore Park in Utah and they are suing Taylor Swift for damages through the US District Court of Utah. The CEO Ken Bretchneider is claiming that he has "invested $37,000,000 in the creation and promotion of Evermore Park and the Evermore trademark" (https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/04/us/taylor-swift-theme-park-lawsuit-trnd/index.html). " The album also drove Evermore Park off the first page of Google search results, according to the document" (https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/04/us/taylor-swift-theme-park-lawsuit-trnd/index.html). Taylor Swifts advisors are completely dismissing the claims with a cease and desist letter to the park (https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/utah-theme-park-sues-taylor-swift-evermore-album-75666446). Currently there are no deliberations or actions on record for the pending lawsuit.

What's real?

The lawsuits main demands circle around the belief that Taylor Swift is using the trademark information and the Evermore Parks name in the same way the park would use the trademark for adverting and marketing. The truth is a trademark does not fully grant the user of the the trademark exclusive rights on all facets and scopes that could be used with the name (especially if the uses are completely different or that neither scopes use the tradename to describe the product in the same way). Suing Taylor Swift for using the Evermore tradename for her album would be like Game of Throne suing Evermore Parks for selling dragon merchandise. The real question in trademark is, where is the limit of the exclusivity of the name?