Pretty Dame Cool

[Keith Poe]

Getting the 31-B some exposure in action

I named my rig after my daughter Alyssa Rose

She will be in one of the shoots for next season spotter plane is going to be shooting her working targeting GWS.

Thinking about putting the name on the port and starboard and my logo on the transom.

[Carl]

Keith...your subject line says it best!


Pretty Dame Cool

[Hueso]

Keith:

With that kind of media exposure, slowly you will become a national and even worldwide celebrity. Go find a lawyer that will help you with "trademark" and "patent" issues. Your logo is kickass and there is some potential profit out of it in pro of the conservation of the species, including yours. ;) Just my two cents.

[MarkS]

You know why snakes don't bite lawyers.................professional courtesy.

sorry couldn't help myself.

Awesome logo BTW!

[IRGuy]

I can see it now...

Pretty Dame Cool tee shirts, hats, coozies, underwear, suntan lotion, keychain tags, mouse pads.. the list can be endless!

Lets displace all those Salt Life car window decals with Pretty Dame Cool!

Just please remember us here with a "friends and family" discount!

[Tony Meola]

Keith

Listen to Huesso. He is our resident attorney the advice is good.

Don't be like my father-in-law. Did not want to spend $3,000 to patent a tool he designed to work on his OMC outdrive. So he approached OMC and they told him not worth playing with. Guess what showed up on the shelves about 2 years later and made by OMC. Granted OMC is no longer around but the tool is now used by other manufacturers and after market.

[mike ohlstein]

I'm not a lawyer....

Patents and Trademarks are two different things. It's quite possible that the electronic time and date stamp on the post on this web site will be sufficient to prove First Use. That said, I would add a tm to it and post it again. And I would print it on something with the time and date and notary stamp.

And I would consult a lawyer, if I knew one personally who wouldn't charge me anything.......

[Hueso]

Regularly, each state have their own Rules and Regulations to register a mark. In Puerto Rico, the process is handled by the Department of State. Usually, you may do the trademark procedure through the internet, if your State is "up to date".

Mike:

Look at the Lanham Act (US Trademark Act, 15 USC 1051 et seq.) and the Model State Trademark Act.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/chapter-22" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You may also look at this, but I do not know if its up to date:

http://www.bitlaw.com/source/15usc/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Hueso]

Mike:

Sorry for not directly addressing your question in my previous post.

In layman terms and citing from WiseGeek:

Copyrights, trademarks, and patents are all forms of legal protection provided by a governmental entity to inventors, musicians, businesses, and many others. Each offers a unique set of rights and protections, but differ in what they cover, as well as how long those protections last. In general, a copyright protects written or artistic works, like books, plays, musical compositions, and paintings; trademarks protect brand names and symbols, like logos; and patents protect inventions, including processes, devices, designs, and even plants.

A trademark does not necessarily have to be registered to be valid; in the US, an individual or company can claim rights over the use of a word or symbol in commerce simply by using it. Often, companies will add a ™ to a brand name to establish ownership, and while they are waiting for a registered trademark (®) to be approved. Registering a mark with the US government gives the owner additional benefits, however, including the right to bring a lawsuit in federal court against another company it feels is infringing on the mark, the right to use the registered trademark symbol in commerce, and establishing a basis to register the trademark in other countries.

There are no international trademarks. Owners of trademarks in the US who want to protect their marks in other countries must apply for that protection. There are registration systems, such as the Community Trademark System (CTM), which covers European Union member states, and the Madrid System for the International Registration of Trademarks, which allow a trademark seeker to use one basic application to apply to register the trademark in any or all of the nations that are members of the system. Applying through these or other systems does not guarantee that the mark will be approved, however, and not all countries are members of such systems.

[TailhookTom]

An additional measure of protection, print a copy out, put it is an envelope, address the envelope to yourself, affix proper postage and mail the envelope to yourself. DO NOT OPEN upon receipt.

Tom

[MarkS]

Registered mail.

[Tony Meola]

I'm not a lawyer....

Patents and Trademarks are two different things. It's quite possible that the electronic time and date stamp on the post on this web site will be sufficient to prove First Use. That said, I would add a tm to it and post it again. And I would print it on something with the time and date and notary stamp.

And I would consult a lawyer, if I knew one personally who wouldn't charge me anything.......

Mike

Unfortunately I knew that, was just drawing a comparison. I remember getting into a dispute about a year after I was married (before scanners, color copiers etc) because I wanted a copy of a picture fromt the wedding made. The photographer destroyed the negatives and no one would make a copy, kept telling me the pictures were the property of the photography firm. Hell I paid for them. Hired him etc. Seems that all weasels stick together.

[Navatech]

Seems that all weasels stick together.

Seems that photographers and graphic artists really take the cake in these things... I once engaged a photographer to go out with me to a container yard and take pictures of seals, how to put them on containers and how to take them off... We'd agreed that he'd get a certain amount of money for his service...

We get back to my office, the guy downloads the pictures to his laptop, shows them to me and I say, OK, burn a CD with the pictures and I'll write you a check... He then goes, nope, the money you agreed to pay was only for me to go out and take the pictures... If you want the originals for "unlimited use" you'll have to pay me 250.00 US$ for each picture... He then went on to explain how photographers work... Basically he was trying to get about 30K (roughly 100 pictures totaling 25,000 plus 5,000 for actually coming out to the container yard) for half a day's work...

I told him I'll think about it... After a while I sent him an email stating that he really should have explained this BEFORE we went out to the container yard... I'm not a photographer and I thought simply that by agreeing to a price to go out and take the pictures I would get the pictures...

He replied that he was sorry that he hadn't explained this during our negotiation... I sent him a reply that basically said that not only he can shove the pictures where the sun don't shine but I'm not going to pay him for coming out either because as far as I was concerned he did so under false pretenses...

The idiot sued me in small claims court... I printed out the email where he admitted that he should have explained how these things work BEFORE we went out to take the pictures... I.e. there's a separate fee for coming out to take the pictures and then an additional fee for each picture I want to actually use... I explained to the judge that I'm not a photographer and when I agreed to a certain price I rightfully believed I'd get to actually use the pictures... The judge agreed with my position based on the fact that the photographer hadn't made things clear... She asked whether I was willing to pay the agreed sum in return for getting the pictures...

By that time I had already shot the whole series again myself so I said that I didn't need the pictures anymore but that I'd be willing to pay half of the agreed sum for them because they were better then the ones that I had and because I realized that the photographer hadn't received anything for his trouble...

So I ended up paying 2,500 for the pictures... Had he been smart he'd gotten 5,000 but no, he just wanted to be greedy...

[Navatech]

Thinking about putting the name on the port and starboard and my logo on the transom.

Actually, I'd like to make a 6' wide version of that logo and put it on the front of my bridge :-)