In an ad that appeared in the New York Times yesterday, by a company named Racebrook announcing that an action of 150 “Timeless Trademarks and Domain Names” will be held on December 8th at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.
In reviewing the list there are certainly some interesting, well known trademarks included in the auction:
Infoseek (Search Engine)
General Instrument (Audio/Video, Telephones)
General CinemaBraniff (Airlines)
American Brand
Meister Brau (beer)
Lucky Whip (food topping)
Handi-Wrap (plastic wrap for food)
The Linen Closet (Home Furnishings)
Child World (Toys)
Changing Times (Magazine)Collier’s (Magazine)
Circus World
Bowery Savings Bank
The ad says:
“Buy a priceless Trademark, including its Domain Name, and reinvent its commercial success. Never in the history of marketing and advertising has there been this unique investment opportunity.”
The initial purchase is an exclusive license that you can turn into full ownership when you file the Statement of Use and it is accepted by the Patent and Trademark Office.”
The purchase of the domain name is completed immediately upon payment of the full purchase price.”
To see the full list of trademarks and domains for sale, or to register to bid you can click here:
curiously the site don’t have an email address nor an email form
Direct registration is at:
http://www.trademarkauctioninfo.com/register.htm
So are the trademarks expired?
Are they all the “trademark.com”?
Brian
Like anything else if your interested you have to do your homework, figure out what is being sold and evaluate the risks.
@MHB
Done and done
December 8th at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.
San Francisco California, December 8-9, 2010
ICANN Colombia Cartegena .CO – December 8th
Truly Remarkable Names,
This is something that will really impress …
your ambitious nagging gold digging bea …
Why you could instantly become a Magnate CEO overnight,
on paper.
Great marketing strategy, bad names. Most of the domain names do not correspond to the trademarks they are associated with. Example joesbank tm comes with joesbankandtrust.com Lame lame lame.
On their website they claim they will sell 30% of the names at no reserve and then
“The balance of the trademarks will be with reserve wherein the Owner can accept or reject the high bid”
If you want their total bidder package the cost is $1750.00 and there is a $50 to bid online. Hey who needs to sell domain names? Just sell info packages at close to 2K a pop and keep the domain names. Mikey likes it!
Hmm, It looks like Gold Rush Brands, LLC recently filed the trade mark for HBOS…even though hbos.co.uk still points to the Lloyds Banking Group who took them over.
https://www.trademarkia.com/hbos-77927717.html
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4002:atstfb.2.20
Current Status: Opposition period completed, a Notice of Allowance has been issued.
….interesting stategy as long as you fully understand trade mark law (and have a good lawyer just in case) 🙂
No one should but any of the TMs or their associated domains w/out the review of an excellent IP (including domains) attorney.
Sure is a different sale but anything related to trademarks really needs to be proceeded with carefully , i wonder if any of the companies had filed for bankruptcies ? or are liable to any future costs , me thinks run for the hills !
BAIT AND SWITCH :
KNOWN brands ….
will be taken ALREADY, of course
and then …
you will be Up Sold the chaf …
Classic!
Shady, Shady, Shady. The this is a nightmare. Do not do it. One of the principles likes to play around with the TM laws and USTPO rules to get around obvious TM violations. Example, they Tried to Publish a magazine called “Modern Maturity” same name as AARP’s 50MM subscription Mag. Tried to Register a TM for “Chemical Bank” claiming that the one you have all heard of is known as Chemical Bank & Trust. These are the kinds of pre-established TM approvals they are offering.
There are 158 names listed. 4 of the names they list are avail to reg now. (Maybe they had a typo in their list but still, Buyer Beware) allsweetmargerine.com, greenergyproducts.net, linenclosetprodcuts.com, relaxacisor.net They stink anyway!
The guy sellin
Most of this garbage is less than 1 year old. Wondering how they can get away with this.
Here are the only True Brand Name domains. They are owned by the same person/company…Michael Reich/200 Kelsey Associates. All the others have suffixes like xxxProducts.com, xxxxxCompany.net or xxxxxShopping.org.
AmericanBrands.com
AmericanPetrofina.com
BreakfastMates.com
CheezKisses.com
CleanerGreener.net
CocoMalt.com
ControlData.org
CrustQuick.com
FirstBrands.org
FruitBombs.com
GeneralCinema.net
GeneralCinemaCorp.com
KoolShake.com
LipKissers.com
LuckyWhip.com
LustreCreme.com
NailSlickers.com
OldSodaShoppe.com
PacificBrands.net
PacificResources.com
ParisElegant.com
Permastrate.net
RockyRounds.com
SnowCrop.net
Assuming he owned them before their was a federal trademark on the names(or close), once you buy them, all bets are off. The trademark owners can claim you knew about their trademarks and bought them anyway. Screw that. $100K lawsuits for each name. Don’t be crazy.
Sounds great but I come from a place of wanting to build your business brand from the ground up.
To echo some of the comments above, this auction is literally:
1) a minefield, poised to explode on anyone foolish enough to bid on an unregistered, non-transferable ITU;
2) absurd; in that 200 Kelsey spent years and lots of money applying for a hodge-podge of lousy trademarks, 90% of which have been abandoned to date, with most of the unregistered remaining live applications on the verge of permanent expiry;
3) desperate, given that none of the marks in question would be “for sale” if there were any marketplace interest in licensing or buying the few registered marks on offer, or using the remaining ITUs in commerce;
4) borderline fraudulent, given the likelihood that the few registrations awarded 200 Kelsey by USPTO were done so on the basis of possibly falsified, certainly exaggerated Use In Commerce. Can you find any of these brands on products or services for sale? Anywhere? Sorry- URLs don’t qualify.
5) a ginormous Pain In The Ass for the trademark system; falling somewhere on the Socially Useless / Predatory spectrum between Domain Name squatters; IP patent acquirers who litigate on specious grounds of “business process violation”; and Goldman Sachs.
Hopefully this auction won’t encourage a tsunami of speculative trademark applications that tie up USPTO examiner resources and block legitimate trademark applications with viable Use In Commerce by legitimate manufacturers and marketers.