An interesting trademark case was on trial this last week in LA.
The trial pitted family members against each other.
On one side you had Larry Flynt, one of those people that really needs no introduction and his company Larry Flynt Productions, and on the other side two of his nephews who of course also have the last name Flynt, and set up their own production company using the name Flynt Media Corp.
Problem is that the younger Flynts were like their uncle wanting to produce and distributing adult movies using the name Flynt, which the elder and by far much more famous Flint, took exception to.
The jury determined that the name Jimmy II Flynt and Dustin Flynt chose for the company was too similar to their famous uncle’s and that it was likely to cause confusion in the marketplace.
With its loss in court, Flynt Media Corp. will be permanently enjoined from releasing adult videos under that name.
The nephews contended that they had a right to do business under their own name and that their uncle is just trying to push out a competitor.
Just goes to show you in the trademark world, just because its your name, doesn’t mean you have the right to use it
well theres more to this, first of all you cannot trademark a last name. its called a surname in the legal world.but i have seen an answer filed by an attorney who overcame this objection by the examing attorney. the attorney used a law dating back to 1950 to overcome this objection.this is how antiquated trademark law is and shows what little value these laws really have. in addition it was not just the last name used but larry flynt productions v flynt media corp..in addition there is a problem here larry flynt was the senior user way before the junior users flynt nephews. this is again why you have to do your own trademark work and if you decide to use an attorney tell him what to do.
“first of all you cannot trademark a last name”
Ummmm…. Mr. DuPont, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Westinghouse would like to have a word with you.
Then I would like to introduce you to Ms. Chanel, Mr. Armani, and Mr. Versace.
Where you seem to be hung up is on what is “merely” a surname, and a surname which can be shown to have acquired secondary meaning as a trade or service mark. As suggested above, many of the strongest marks are surnames. I once met the son of the founder of Smucker Foods, and had all I could handle to keep from asking him to convey my greetings to his father and to Mother Smucker.