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Exactly, Jim. When you own a trademark, you need to make a reasonable attempt to defend it. It isn't possible to catch all uses of the name without the R or TM, but the company needs to show that they try to defend the ones that they find. If they lost the trademark, myself or anyone else, could make wire and slap the ROMEX name on it. Southwire obviously does not want that, so they protect the trademark.
They own the trademark, PERIOD. OTHER COMPANIES WHO USE THE TRADEMARK ARE WRONG. Use of the Trademarked name, on a public DIY Forum, should only help sales, not hurt it. If I hear the name ROMEX®, guess where I shop? Big Orange Home Depot, who just so happens to carry ROMEX® branded products.. they benefit from people talking about their product.
That is so correct.Originally Posted by Chad Schloss
Putting the ® does not protect them from other company's using the name.
If they really own that trademark, They have rights to sue if someone does use it.
Reserved and Copyrighted and Trademark are also different, but if you own it , You own it.
I have a feeling that they lost the Copyright and did not pay the bill to keep the trademark.
It cost money to keep the name Reserved, Maybe they did not pay up.
Company's are looking at ways to stay afloat.
Don't you love them Lawyers.
Don't pay someone to do a job fast, when you can do a half-fast job yourself.
The only way you can retain your trademark is to take reasonable effort to defend it's proper use...if you don't, then a legal opening is to declare it a generic, non-trademark. It has nothing to do with paying money...once a trademark is yours, it is yours until you relinquish it, or let it fall into public use through neglect or non-use.
Jim DeBruycker
Important note - I'm not a pro
Retired Defense Industry Engineer
in generalized speaking terms such as this forum, you have no right to tell me how I am supposed to speak and refer to your products. if i were to say, "please hand me a kleenex to wipe off the glass on the xerox" i can without infringing on their trademark. this is not a business, not a money making venture. no ground to stand on. period. romex has been a common name for YEARS for common people to talk about nm-b wire. it is not hurting them at all with us talking about them. If I were to start a business and manufacture wire, and call my product roxex-like or something, then there would be an issue.
"Wrongful or groundless threats of infringement
Various jurisdictions have laws which are designed to prevent trademark owners from making wrongful threats of trademark infringement action against other parties. These laws are intended to prevent large or powerful companies from intimidating or harassing smaller companies.
Where one party makes a threat to sue another for trademark infringement, but does not have a genuine basis or intention to carry out that threat, or does not carry out the threat at all within a certain period, the threat may itself become a basis for legal action.[18] In this situation, the party receiving such a threat may seek from the Court a declaratory judgment; also known as a declaratory ruling."
I think I will stop buying the R product, may have to drive my FORD a little further to get the competors product, on the way back I am going to stop for a SABRETT and a COKE.
You woud think they would be happy having the brand name used freely as long as we are not trying to manfactuer the stuff
I FULLY agree!
This is not the first forum I am hearing this on and I think it's absurd. They are NOT defending it's proper use at all with this request. It's a joke.
I say we ignore ROMEX here, AND on the shelves. Luckily I don't shop for wire at HD very often.
How come Beverly did not use the tm symbol in her E-Mail to Terry, sure wish she included her E-Mail address so we could all tell her how we feel.
How do you even do the R with the circle, I have been in IT for 20 years and I do not know the key combo to do it
while holding down the "Alt" key, type 0174 with the numlock key on and using the numeric keypad. (not the numbers above the letters)
© = alt 0169
® = Alt 0174
Beverly, in my first few years on the job when I had nothing else to do I would grab a paint brush and paint parking lot bumpers and bollards but that was before internet (tm) searches and E-Mail. You could always water the flowers in the big corprate lobby unless they are plastic(tm)
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