Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Why the issue is still an issue

If you have been following the "discussion" on "Theoriginalthreadbears.blogspot.com" you know I disagree with the assertion that the term "thread bear" is trademarked.  I believe that they do own the trademark "Thread Bears" that they obtained after using it descriptively for many years.
If using the term "thread bear" descriptively  is violating a trademark, than they themselves violated said trademark before they obtained it. 

I recently was accused by them of violating the trademark in just such a way, so I asked them to please tell me where.  As far as I knew I wasn't using the term, even descriptively, anywhere on the web.

Well a few days later I received this notice.  It is referencing a page on ravelry that I put up over two years ago and completely forgot about.  The pattern is free and I used to sell it on ebay under the term "thread bear" before this whole issue started.

Ironically..the week that this occured, there were three other auctions on ebay using the term "thread bear" which were apparently left alone.