Woman Trademarks Name and Threatens Sites Using It 273
An anonymous reader writes "Be careful mentioning Dr. Ann De Wees Allen. She's made it clear that she's trademarked her name and using it is 'illegal... without prior written permission.' She even lists out the names of offenders and shows you the cease-and-desist letter she sends them. And, especially don't copy any of the text on her website, because she's using a bit of javascript that will warn you 'Copyright Protect!' if you right click on a link."
Who infringes: mother or child? (Score:3, Interesting)
Mother names new born daughter "Ann de Wees Allen". Is this trademark infringement? By mother? Child? Or does it require a "Dr."? If so, who infringes, the PhD student? Or the university?
I think it is bad, as a matter of public policy, to allow trademarks on names. Otherwise I could be sued, since my name is Bob Weir.
Ellie K (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Worthless Trademark (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Illegal? (Score:3, Interesting)
She says that using her name would be "illegal". That implies criminal. Isn't trademark infringement a civil matter?
According to dictionary.com, the distinction between "illegal" and "criminal" is that something is illegal if it is in violation of any statute, but criminal if it is in violation of a penal statute.
So, no, "illegal" does not imply "criminal": criminal is a strict subset of illegal.
Re:Worthless Trademark (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.anndeweesallen.com/ [anndeweesallen.com] http://www.nanoscienceinstitute.com/ [nanoscienceinstitute.com] http://www.glycemic.com/ [glycemic.com] http://www.glycemicindextesting.com/ [glycemicindextesting.com] http://www.glycemicresearchlaboratories.com/ [glycemicre...tories.com] http://www.nutrilabusa.com/ [nutrilabusa.com] http://www.genefoundation.com/ [genefoundation.com] http://www.ediblecomputerchips.com/ [ediblecomputerchips.com] http://www.trutinadulcem.com/ [trutinadulcem.com] http://www.skinnyscience.com/ [skinnyscience.com] http://www.skinnyscienceedu.com/ [skinnyscienceedu.com] http://www.encoderesearch.com/ [encoderesearch.com] http://brsei.org/ [brsei.org] http://www.humansportsperformance.com/ [humansport...rmance.com] http://www.arginineresearch.com/ [arginineresearch.com] http://www.humanmaximumperformance.com/ [humanmaxim...rmance.com] http://www.argm2.com/ [argm2.com] http://argandobesity.com/ [argandobesity.com] http://arginineanswers.com/ [arginineanswers.com] http://glycemiclifestyle.com/ [glycemiclifestyle.com] http://lowglycemicchocolate.com/ [lowglycemicchocolate.com] http://www.skinnyicecream.com/ [skinnyicecream.com] http://www.skinnysciencecoffee.com/ [skinnysciencecoffee.com] http://skinnysciencelibrary.com/ [skinnysciencelibrary.com] http://sweetinfusedfruits.com/ [sweetinfusedfruits.com] http://encodefoundation.com/ [encodefoundation.com]
But of course, I guess you should have guessed already by looking at the 'Edible Computer Chips' and 'Quantum Chocolate' mentioned at the front page
The big question is: is this a scam or a hoax?
Re:Worthless Trademark (Score:3, Interesting)
Another famous case once lead to the "Audi" brand.
The founder of Audi, August Horch, was voted out of the board of his former company, Horch of Zwickau. So for his next company, he translated his name from German (Horch! = Hear!) to Latin, and thus Audi was born.