A simple assessment by a competent trademark lawyer can cost anywhere from $350 to $2,000 depending on the breadth of the search. That price is pretty cheap compared to the cost of having an injunction issued against you for infringement of intellectual property. All told, being named as a defendant in a trademark infringement or cybersquatting lawsuit can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In the case discussed below, Palantir Technologies branded its company in 2005 with a name that easily could have been identified in a trademark availability search. A good trademark lawyer would have discovered both a prior US trademark registration and a Panantir.net's web site. The common use in a service category which includes databases would have resulted in an attorney opinion that the Palantir name was too high risk.
A Google Search reveals this result for Palantir Technologies. Palantir Technologies : The future of analysis. It turns out Palanir forgot to analyze trademark availability or failed to understand the risks associated with brand name selection of a prior use.
Palantir.net began providing Web design, development, and database services nationally under the Palantir name in 1996. It acquired the palantir.net domain name in 1997. Palantir.net incorporated in 2000 and obtained a federal registration for PALANTIR in 2006. It sells to educational and cultural institutions, as well as financial, corporate, and governmental clients.
Palantir Technologies designs database software for the Central Intelligence Agency and a financial services company. It started offering products under PALANTIR in 2005. It is a small company but it purchases the word “palantir” from Google’s AdWords service and outranks Palantir.net in Google search engine results.
Palantir.net moved for a preliminary injunction enjoining Palantir Technologies from using PALANTIR in advertising. In imposing a preliminary injunction, the court required Palantir Technologies to place on all of its Web sites, including its blog, a “prominent disclaimer that advises viewers that it is different from Palantir.net and that advises viewers how to access Palantir.net.” The court also enjoined Palantir Technologies from “engaging in any Internet advertising under the palantir mark, that is, no more Google advertisements.”
The case cite is Palantir Technologies, Inc. v. Palantir.net, Inc., 2008 WL 152339, No. 07-3863 (N.D. Calif. Jan. 15, 2008).
Seattle Trademark Lawyer - Published by Michael Atkins Palantir.net Gets Preliminary Injunction Against Palantir Technologies
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Obtaining an opinion on trademark availability can save you a lot of money later. Having to re-brand because of a trademark infringement threat letter will cause you to lose all your goodwill, plus incur the expense of new signage and identity.
Posted by: Trademark availability legal opinion | Monday, 07 April 2008 at 12:52 PM
It is amazing to me that so many traditional and e-commerce companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or more to create an online presence for a new product or service without doing their due diligence on trademark availability issues. In large part because of the World Wide Web which makes every store front a global company, trademark availability has become very problematic. Finding a good brand name which doesn’t have prior use issues associated with it gets harder every day. Oftentimes, you find an available brand, but the domain name is not available. A large percentage of domain names are simply “parked” meaning that they may be available for trademark use. A good attorney can help you locate the registrant of a parked domain and potentially negotiate a purchase of that domain at a reasonable price.
In today’s online world, domain names and trademarks continue to increase in value. A large part of that increase in value is attributable to good old fashion principles of supply and demand. The fewer good domain/trademark combinations that are available, the more they are worth in the open market. Picking a good name with trademark and domain availability can add a tremendous amount of value to your business.
Posted by: Enrico Schaefer | Monday, 28 January 2008 at 09:56 AM
The costs of filing a trademark are small, but the far-reaching legal exposure you could face may cost you your business. While there are services that will simply register the trademark for you, these services typically do not collect and analyze conflicting trademarks.
Trademark availability searches provide just as much value as the act of filing itself. A trademark availability search will:
1. Identify whether the trademark you want is already registered
2. Identify whether similar trademarks are registered and assess the risk such registrations pose
3. Identify other uses, such as in a domain name, that may prevent the trademark holder from using its mark as it intends
4. Identify markets into which you could not expand due to prior trademark use by others
A trademark attorney can help you avoid the problems a company faces when its trademark is invalidated, including corrective advertising, rebranding, and even payment of major fees. You should spend just as much time, effort, and possibly money to evaluate and choose your intellectual property as you would to choose real property.
Posted by: trademark attorney, trademark availability search | Sunday, 27 January 2008 at 10:14 PM