Marty Schwimmer points out that someone has filed a trademark application seeking registration of the trademark PODCAST on "online prerecorded radio program over the internet." No, I am not making this up. Hey, if Al Gore can invent the Internet, why can’t an Intent-To-Use trademark application be filed on PODCAST?
Annoyed? Here’s what you can do. Send a letter to: Office of the Assistant Commissioner of Trademarks, Administrator for Trademark Classification and Practice, P.O. Box 1451, Alexandria, VA 22313-1451. Label said letter a "LETTER OF PROTEST" and enclose "evidence of genericness*" If such evidence is proper, it will be forwarded to the Examining Attorney assigned to the case for use in rejecting the trademark application.
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*Evidence of genericness "should be objective, independent, factual evidence…[not]…[p]ersonal opinions [that] are subjective and may be self-serving…") showing that a podcast is a "online prerecorded radio program over the internet." [Via TMEP 1715 et seq.]
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I think all the examining attorney will have to do is notice that Google has over 2,500,000 entries for “podcast”, none of which have anything to do with the parties who filed the application, before they call their coworkers in for a good laugh.
remember the Aussie who patented the wheel?
this is not much different. http://lair.xent.com/pipermail/fork/2001-July/001471.html