RE: TM/SM in non-commercial contexts?

Trademarks associate goods or services with their source. Use in commerce does not require a commercial purpose; it's just a term of art limiting the reach of the federal act to its constitutionally prescribed bounds. States have their own similar trademark laws and their enactments require no interstate commerce nexis, and infringement suits are typically filed under both bodies of law. Furthermore, trademark protection does not require that a word, phrase or symbol be registered, so there's no real way to know in advance whether or not anyone will "claim" protection. It's better to assume that they will.

The real questions will probably involve whether (even if they seek to claim TM protection) these services have a protectable trademark interest in their names to begin with, and whether your use of those marks causes people to believe that you are the source of those media services. There is also a qualified privilege in the trademark law of "fair use."

Good luck.
Cheers
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property [mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of Karsten M. Self Sent: Monday, December 29, 2003 1:07 PM
To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] TM/SM in non-commercial contexts?

I'm interested in precedent and/or caselaw for use of trademark or service marks in non-commercial contexts. Most applicable would be publications or free-of-charge media services under a trademarked or service-mark protected name, logo, or brand.

My understanding of trademark law is that use is restricted to "use in commerce" (15 USC 1051(a)(3)(C). However I don't find a definition of "commerce".

There are numerous organizations which maintain identities but don't have commercial activities per se. And while I'm not sure if any of these use trademark or service mark protection, I suspect some do.

Guidance is appreciated.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
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