Paysite Trademark

[faxxaff]

Originally Posted by InfoGuy

I'm not a lawyer and these are only my personal opinions. If you need legal advice, you should hire qualified legal counsel.

Personally, I think you'd be flushing your money down the toilet in most cases. The immoral and scandalous provision in 15 U.S.C. 1052(a) is a major hurdle to registering a trademark for an adult related word/phrase.

Thanks for your kind opinion. Of course I am not looking for legal advice, but for personal experiences. What do you base your suggestion on? I know of various adult sites that carry trademarked names and logos and that have successfully filed suites and won.

Losses resulting from domain squatting and content theft are way easier to battle with trademark registration than without.

[LD]

Originally Posted by faxxaff

I know of various adult sites that carry trademarked names and logos and that have successfully filed suites and won.

Losses resulting from domain squatting and content theft are way easier to battle with trademark registration than without.

That's true, but it still cost money. These types of battles often come down to which party is willing to spend the most money, although if you own a trademark often a letter from your attorney will take care of of the situation.

[InfoGuy]

Originally Posted by faxxaff

Thanks for your kind opinion. Of course I am not looking for legal advice, but for personal experiences. What do you base your suggestion on? I know of various adult sites that carry trademarked names and logos and that have successfully filed suites and won.

Losses resulting from domain squatting and content theft are way easier to battle with trademark registration than without.

Again, these are all just my personal opinions.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you can't get trademarks for an adult company. The adult brands Vivid, Hustler, Playboy, Twisty's etc. are valuable trademarks. However, these are arbitrary words that don't contain immoral or scandalous words/phrases.

You should also note that arbitrary and coined words/phrases have greater degrees of trademark protection than descriptive words/phrases. Most paysites don't use arbitrary words, but rather descriptive words or phrases. When you said trademarks for paysites, I was under the impression that you meant domains containing words like fuck, porn, pussy, tits, ass, dick, cock, sluts, etc. Such paysite names would have two things going against them with regards to trademarks, weaker protection from being descriptive and high probability of getting denied at the USPTO due to the immoral and scandalous provision. With that being said, the immoral and scandalous provision is related to U.S. trademarks. It's possible to get a trademark in another country, even if the U.S. denies it.

In any case, trademark rights are created from usage. You do not have to officially register a trademark with the government to create trademark rights. Registered trademarks just offer greater degrees of protection. So technically, you can still have your attorney send out C&Ds without having a registered mark.