Resolving Intellectual Property Rights

Resolving Intellectual Property Rights

Ruth Hawthorne

Strayer University

Instructor Cheri Reiser

September 6, 2015

To:

        Mr. Shep Howard

        President of SGP

Dear Mr. Howard,

Trademarks are used by a business to identify its product and distinguish it from any of their competitors. Trademark are protected by the federal and state trademark law, and is intended to prevent any misperception among businesses in connection to their products logo or identification. After researching trademark related to the company, it was discovered that another company is using SafePack as its registered trade mark by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (UPSTO). I recommend that we discontinue the use of this trademark because another business currently holds this trademark and we need to also avoid any potential mix-up it may have on the company’s customers.

Registration of this trademark on the premise that both businesses trade different products which reduces the chance that consumers would confuse the companies, may be stopped by the anti-dilution law. (Bently, L., & Sherman, B, 2014). Trademark dilution refers to the weakening of an established mark of a business making it hard to identify its products. If we register our trademark with UPSCOS we may taint the mark of the other company’s brand Safe Choice. Safe Choice may then become very eager to sue the company for trademark infringement to protect their brand and the anti- dilution law will protect them. Acting on this may lead to penalties being enforced on the company based on the dilution of Safe Choice’s trademark rights and its brand.

During my research I also discovered that the use of SafePac.com will violate the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). When a registrant acquires a domain name containing another company’s mark and offers to sell it to the mark holder for a large sum, it is referred to as Cybersquatting. However, with our company registering and using SafePac.com may seem like a problem, it is not identical to safepack.com. Also, we do not intend to profit from the established domain name and we are trying to prevent any violation of the ACPA or possible lawsuits. (Faturoti, B., 2015). This is very positive on our part because if we were found guilty of any violations, the court may order the forfeiture or cancellation of our registered domain name. Safe Choice could also have claimed damages and received injunctive relief. These damages could have included the profits the business we will make from the use of the domain name, and the losses that may have been sustained by Safe Choice as a result of registering our domain name as SafePac.com.