Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Texas
Common Law Trademarks
A company has registered its company logo with the PTO, which logo includes the company name. However, when I searched for it on the PTO's database, there is a disclaimer as follows:
"No claim is made to the exclusive right to use "The ---- Company" apart from the mark as shown"
Although I'm not a trademark lawyer, I am assuming that the examining attorney determined that the name of the company was not distinctive enough to protect.
My question is this, if a competitor uses the domain name "www.the----company.com" for its web site, can The ---- Company, Inc. cause the competitor to cease and desist using that domain name if the name itself is not protectable? Or is the name protectable under a common law trademark?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Common Law Trademarks
Get a copy of the "file history" of the trademark from the USPTO and you can tell what the Examiner concluded. Why guess?