Company files trademark lawsuit, demands lingerie company cease using domain name.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, known by its acronym MADD, is taking on lingerie company MADDSEXY in a trademark lawsuit (pdf).
Among MADD’s requests is that MADDSEXY cease using its domain name Maddsexy.com.
According to the advocacy group:
Defendants’ promotion of lingerie products, along with their highly sexualized portrayal of women in their promotion of their products, is likely to erode MADD’s credibility and damage MADD’s goodwill and valuable reputation by diluting the MADD Marks, including, but not limited to, the famous MADD mark.
Hmm. I “get it”, but I can also understand how the lingerie company chose to add two d’s to the end of its name for a number of reasons.
And I don’t know that I agree with this:
Defendants’ use of “MADDSEXY” in promoting women’s intimate products so resembles MADD’s distinctive marks used in connection with MADD’s goods and services, which are offered in the same channels of commerce to the same general public, as to be likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive.
I seriously doubt anyone who buys this lingerie thinks that a portion of the proceeds are going to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
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Clothing company says you can’t use the term “gap” in your social media web site.
Clothing company The Gap has sued GapNote.com and its founder for trademark infringement. GapNote.com is a new site that helps people chronicle their past, present, and future, and the gaps in between.
The lawsuit claims that the site should not be able to use the term “gap” anywhere in its name because the clothing company owns rights to the domain name.
The Gap claims:
Defendant promotes and operates a web site with the domain name gapnote.com that services as a social media and networking web page, much like those on which The Gap expends significant time, effort and money to advertise and maintain a significant presence.
So The Gap apparently thinks that if you have a social media site that includes a generic, three letter term and a trademark holder markets itself on social media sites then you’re infringing its mark.
The one thing I will give to The Gap on this is that the site’s logo does use a font similar to The Gap’s old lower case logo. (It now uses an all upper case logo.) Before reading the lawsuit I went to GapNote.com and thought “wow, that logo font is similar”, and assumed the lawsuit was about the logo. But it’s not — The Gap is claiming a lot more.
You can read The Gap’s complaint here (pdf).
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