Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 8321417" data-attributes="member: 6988941">Also even when a US federal trademark registration (the thing that gets you the ® symbol) lapses the registrant may still be using it sufficiently to have common law trademark rights or trademark rights in another country. US Federal registrations are an important part of securing trademark rights but they are never the whole show by any means.People love the idea of lapsed trademarks to once valuable brands just being up for grabs, but if you want to use someone's old trademark and actually be secure in your rights you'd better cut them or their heirs in interest a check if you intend to actually use the trademark in a field where that brand was ever valuable. Courts want to keep words open for usage in commerce but they have no particular desire to help some rando profit off of someone else's brand goodwill.</blockquote>