When Matthew Krol, board president for the new John Adams High School in Colorado, opened the trademark demand letter from an attorney in Sacramento, he was baffled.Ridiculous.
The letter from a lawyer representing the John Adams Academy in Roseville directed the Littleton, Colo. high school to choose another name or face the possibility of legal action.
“I just couldn’t believe it. It would be different if we had a name that was geographic, like Grand Canyon School,” said Krol. “We’re talking about a president of the United States and a founding father of our country.
“You look around, and a lot of schools have the name of a founding father,” he said, noting that he found nearly two dozen schools named after the second U.S. president in an internet search. “I just can’t see how somebody could trademark a president of the United States"...
Most of the nearly two dozen John Adams school namesakes that Krol found online have been using the name for years. Trademark attorneys say schools anywhere in the country that have been using their names longer than the school holding the trademark registration, known as common-law rights, can continue doing so.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Trademarking a President
Is it just me, or does this seem like a frivolous, harassing move by the Roseville school and its attorney?
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Lawyers need to eat, too … and when they run out of their own young, they have to find other people to bother. But no, of course you can't trademark a namem, especially one as common as John Adams.
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