We wrote about the above trademark warning ad a few years back, and the claimed trademark owner likely recognizing vulnerability as to validity:
“The idea generally is, let’s show and create a record that we are educating the public about our trademark rights and hopefully deterring misuses that otherwise might find their way into the public eye and influence the relevant public’s understanding of a term or symbol as being generic and part of the public domain, free for anyone to use, even competitors.“
Now, the validity of Car-Freshner Corporation’s federal non-traditional trademark registrations for the shape, configuration, and silhouette of a tree design, are seriously being questioned.
Sun Cedar, a non-profit based in Lawrence, Kansas, with the able pro-bono assistance of Marty Schwimmer of the Leason Ellis firm, has filed an answer and counterclaim in federal district court in the Northern District of New York, denying Car-Freshner Corporation’s allegations of trademark infringement, dilution, and unfair competition, and seeking cancellation of U.S. Reg. Nos:
on functionality grounds, and the ‘016, ‘233, ‘888, and ‘854 registrations on abandonment grounds.
You can read more about this trademark dispute here at Techdirt — calling it another example of trademark bullying.
Here is an image of the Sun Cedar product that is alleged to infringe and dilute Car-Freshner Corporation’s federally-registered trademarks in the so-called Little Trees design:
A few questions come to mind. Would you have put your non-traditional trademark rights at risk for the above alleged infringement?
Will the registrations be exposed to have ticking time bombs inside them?
If so, will Marty declare timber! as they fall and then gather up the debris to stack like cord-wood?
Or, will there be a mixed result, and if not chopped down altogether, might the registrations simply be chopped down to size.
Endless possibilities abound, so stay tuned, this is sure to be an interesting one.