Yahoo Serious Fights Yahoo! trademark

fsck writes "Australian actor Yahoo Serious is fighting Internet portal Yahoo! for the trademark to the word Yahoo, registered with the Australian Trade Marks Office in August. Yahoo! was founded in 1994, whereas Yahoo Serious changed his name by deed poll in 1980. It sounds as though Mr Serious is, among other things, tired of receiving any more misdirected Yahoo! snail mail." The levels of comedy to this are astounding.

Origins?

[Runt-Abu]

What about Jonathan Swift who inveted the word in the first place?

Surely the great great great grand nice (twice removed on her mother's side) could have some contention about this?

Missing the point.

[Welpa]

I think most of you guys are missing the point.

Yahoo is moving to register the trademark now, they applied for it in August. Being an actor, it means that if Yahoo Serious was to release merchandise etc. under the name Yahoo, Yahoo! inc. would probably sue him.
This wasn't a problem before they applied for the trademark.

How would you guys feel if I tried to register the trademark "Linus Torvalds" tomorrow?
I think that Mr. Serious has a serious point.

(pardon the pun :)

I don't see how this applies

[Shadowin]

Yahoo! is a trademark of an internet portal. Yahoo Serious' "business" has nothing in common with Yahoo!'s, so what does it even have to do with him? I think the schmuk just wants to get in the news because it has eluded him for quite a few years. Either that or he's looking for a quick buck (settlement).

-Shade

Re:whatever

[Dr_Cheeks]

why wait until now to say something about it.[sic]

The reason he's only just brought this up is because Yahoo! is trying to register their trademark in the field of entertainment - a piece of turf that Mr. Serious has already staked out (well, sort of). When they were just a search engine he could hardly claim there was going to be a lot of confusion, but since they're on his doorstep now he's got a bit more of a case.

Course, the fact that he's not exactly the best known actor ever may prevent most people from being confused since they're unlikely to have heard of him. But since IANAL, I'm going to leave that discussion to the court to decide.

And laugh if he wins.

It's just a shame he didn't change his name to Micro Soft.

How can you get confused?

[mblase]

Apple Computer and Apple Vacations. They both use the same identifier, there's a potential trademark violation. Except there isn't, because one is "Computer" and is associated with hardware and software, while the other is "Vacations" and is associated with the travel industry. Easy to tell them apart. This is how trademark disputes using common words are dealt with.

Yahoo! (with the exclamation mark, which they have always used even if their users don't) is associated with a Web portal, and has been for years, while Yahoo Serious (with the last name) has always been associated with comedy (well, loosely). "Yahoo" is a common word, but they're used differently in each case, so there's no confusion.

If you ask me, this is just a cheap publicity ploy by Yahoo Serious to get his name back in the public eye, since his acting ability is incapable of doing so. The dispute is a non-issue, and will be treated as such by the courts.

Names

[scott1853]

My name is Scott. Does that mean I can sue the owner of scott.com? Nope.

Did Yahoo Serios pull his current name out of thin air, i.e. was is completely originaly and never been said before? Nope, that word has been around a lot longer than he's been using it.

He's been in more recent movies than Young Einstein but when was the last time you heard his name mentioned? During promos for Young Einstein.

Does he have a chance in hell of winning? Nope.

Mostly funny, but kinda serious too...

[mystery_bowler]

(I just know I'm going to get flamed for this statement) Just from reading the posts so far, I think a lot of people are missing the point.

Yahoo!'s trademark gives them the necessary leverage needed to keep others from associating their name with products/services/activities/etc that have nothing to do with Yahoo!. As a result, Yahoo Serious (who apparently still has a career in Australia) runs the risk of legal troubles if he uses his legal first name to promote his movies. Imagine him making a movie that has a corresponding movie poster with wording like "Yahoo Presents...[movie title]" or a title like (in class Earnest fashion) "Yahoo Goes To The Outback." Yahoo! could, if they so desired, sue Yahoo Serious (or, more likely, whatever production company made the film) for trademark violations, since their trademarked name was used in the promotion of a product they had nothing to do with.

To put a spin on an anology someone else used on this subject, having the name Scott does not, indeed, give you the right to own scott.com. But if Scott Tissue got a trademark on the name "Scott", they could possibly sue you for making a homepage titled "Scott's Web Site", simply on the implication that Scott Tissue might be associated with the site due to the use of a trademarked name.

I still think Yahoo Serious will lose this legal battle, but it still kind of stinks that companies can trademark such phrases (instead of something a bit more obvious, like a logo).

Its about TRADEMARK not domains

[Anonymous Coward]

My name is Scott. Does that mean I can sue the owner of scott.com? Nope.

No, you can't steal scott.com. But they can't TRADEMARK "scott" either. Yahoo! applied for a trademark in the ENTERTAINMENT FIELD in Australia in August. That trademark would prohibit Mr. Serious (who changed his name in 1980) from being able to market himself or his production company, his films or any other products /services he offers.

Mr. Serious is NOT attempting to hijack yahoo.com, and he could probably care less about domains, so long as he is able to continue to use his own domain yahooserious.com, and whatever the australian one is.

Re:Silly!

[znu]

Trademark isn't the same thing as copyright. You get to own a trademark for as long as you're actively using it; they don't expire. But Swift wouldn't own this trademark. Simply using something in a fictional story doesn't establish a trademark. You have to do business with/under than name.

Re:Seriously Amused

[egomaniac]

I know that you supposedly can't trademark a proper name

Where do people keep getting this idea from? McDonald's. Wendy's. Samuel Adams. Warner Brothers. Ford. Chef Boyardee (yes, he was a real person, although he spelled his name differently). The list goes on...

Everybody named Wendy does not get to sue the fast food chain just because they happen to share the name. An unrelated Mr. Sam Adams does not get to put the beer company out of business. Trademarks are only infringed when there is the potential for 'consumer confusion', and trust me that Mr. Serious is the only one confused about this. He's probably doing this just for the publicity, unless he has a very stupid lawyer.