James Neighbors goes to great lengths to ensure that everything is under his control in “Overpasses for America” aka “Overpasses for Obama’s Impeachment”. One of the ways is to apply for a trademark for the name and threaten to sue the admins, if they do not allow him control of the group.
A trademark is used to protect the brands of commercial products. It a trademark would not seem to be enforceable in the case that the presumed “infringing person” is not offering a product for sale. It is also not clear that a person can protect a FaceBook group with a trademark, when the admin status was given to someone else. There are no damages. If used in this way, it would be just a ploy to intimidate people, who admin state and local groups, with the threat of a lawsuit, which would not be significant enough to take to small claims court.
Neighbors evidently sees Impeach Obama protests as merely another commercial activity. You have to ask yourself, why someone so obsessed with his own commercial interest would not just sell out to the highest bidder when the time is ripe. Click “Neighbors Scandal” under categories in the right margin to read more on this topic.
Word Mark OVERPASSES FOR OBAMA'S IMPEACHMENT Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Political party services, namely, promoting the interests of a political organization. FIRST USE: 20130613. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20130613 Standard Characters Claimed Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK Serial Number 86049101 Filing Date August 27, 2013 Current Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Owner (APPLICANT) Neighbors, James INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES 25024 Rolling Hills Drive Tecumseh OKLAHOMA 74873 Type of Mark SERVICE MARK Register PRINCIPAL Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
The trademark was denied. You cannot trademark the name Overpasses
It says on the website that the trademark application is “live”. My understanding is that a trademark would only apply to products that are sold, not the name or URL of a FaceBook group, which is not selling any products.
Plus it would include the Type Set and Exact Name as the Registered Trademark. They have already changed the name of the group to Overpasses For America, furthermore most signs in pics only had Overpasses.Org on them. The pics do NOT belong to James Neighbors or his organization.
I hope Jimbo keeps this going…..
It would seem that his trademark claim on the state groups is thin at best and hardly worth the effort of suing someone over.
Not so fast…… That so called “Trademark” is not complete..
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Status:
A non-final Office action has been sent (issued) to the applicant. This is a letter from the examining attorney requiring additional information and/or making an initial refusal. The applicant must respond to this Office action. To view all documents in this file, click on the Trademark Document Retrieval link at the top of this page.
Status Date:
Sep. 24, 2013
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86049101&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch