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Trademark registration – is it a good idea?

Trademark registration – is it a good idea?

In principle, the question posed in the title is rhetorical, and obtaining legal protection for a trademark has almost exclusively positive effects that grow along with the brand's development. But can filing an application and making appropriate efforts in this regard have the opposite effect? As it turns out, yes. One of the American companies, Bird B Gone, recently found this out, as described below.

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Trademark registration – is it a good idea?

The collaboration between the parties lasted until 2003, when the contracting company ceased further cooperation with Fugnetti and transferred the work on the logo to its internal department. Later, it turned out that, allegedly since 2005, Bird B Gone had n using a photograph of a flying pigeon taken by Fugnetti to advertise its products (documents from the case file). Until 2017, there were no disputes with the photographer in this regard, which was probably due to his lack of awareness.

Trademark registration

And here we arrive at 2017, when it turned out that the company Bird B Gone decided to register a flying pigeon, known from Fugnetti’s photograph, as a trademark. And it was then that one of the company’s employees decided to send the author of the photograph an email asking when the photograph was taken, as this information was missing in order to effectively obtain trademark protection.

Until the day he received the email, Dennis Fugnetti was not even aware that Bird B Gone was using his photograph. Two years after receiving the email, the photographer decided to sue the company he had once worked with. The subject of the dispute was, of course, the unlawful and long-term use of his photograph to mark the company’s products. The case eventually went to federal court in Los Angeles, California, which recently ruled that the lawsuit was justified and that the company Bird B Gone is obligated to pay $1.2 million to Fugnetti’s daughter, as the photographer suddenly passed away in 2019.

Appeal

The defendant’s lawyers have already announced that they will fight the case to the end and appeal the verdict, as they believe that the claim has not n proven in any way. On the other hand, the representatives of Fugnetti’s daughter pointed out that since receiving the lawsuit, the company Bird B Gone has destroyed all packaging containing the disputed trademark, which only confirms the validity of the claims. The above case shows that copyright and intellectual property law are very closely related, and without proper protection of one’s interests, even the registration of a trademark can be very costly for the alleged rights holder.

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