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a_large_rock
join:2003-08-02
L6H0H3

a_large_rock

Member

How hard is it to registrar a trade mark?

Can anything be trade marked now? I was at the farmers market on Saturday, went to buy jam from the old lady who I normally get it from. All the labels on her jars had black marker lines through them because some company owns the trade mark 'Farmers Market' and she can't include 'farmers market' on her products.

I always thought you couldn't trade mark obvious things things like: 'farmers market', 'apple pie' or 'grocery store'; that has changed?
mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON

mr weather

Premium Member

Here's the "Farmers Market" Canadian registered trademark (owned by Maple Leaf Foods):

»www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/app/op ··· OnPage=1

The wares are limited to "sausage" so I'm not sure why she felt she needed to black out the words on her jam jar labels.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues

Premium Member

She may have gotten a letter to "cease and desist" using the name. Not realizing that it was limited to sausages.
elgoog
join:2014-09-09
Kitchener, ON

elgoog

Member

said by elwoodblues:

She may have gotten a letter to "cease and desist" using the name. Not realizing that it was limited to sausages.

Lawblaws owns Farmer's Market for basically anything sold at a farmer's markets:
(1) fruits
(2) vegetables, pies, quiches, muffins
(3) cakes, tea biscuits, scones, cookies, cinnamon rolls, tarts, danishes, brownies, Nanaimo bars, date squares, macaroons
(4) loaves
(5) cupcakes
(6) nuts
--
(1) Pies
--
(1) Sauces
(2) Cold meats

Jam might fall under fruits or Sauces?

(Link and others)
»www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/app/op ··· OnPage=1

They also have similar trade marks: 'Farm Market', 'Farm Fresh', etc
btech805
join:2013-08-01
Canada

btech805 to a_large_rock

Member

to a_large_rock
It all depends on how good your lawyers are. My father had his own trademark searching firm for 30 yrs until he retired last February. If you're a little guy then no you can't trademark generic terms, but if you have got an all star legal team then they seemed to be able to bully their way into getting anything trademarked.
mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON

mr weather to elgoog

Premium Member

to elgoog
Farmers or Farmer's? The apostrophe may make a big difference. And yes, if the old lady at the market is using the latter her jam could be considered a sauce which would fall under Loblaw's trademark.

OverrRyde
join:2007-04-10
Waterdown, ON

OverrRyde to a_large_rock

Member

to a_large_rock
This is a good question, i have been wondering the same thing since i saw the commercials with "Captain Obvious" from hotels.com. When the commercial is over, you can see in small print at the bottom that Hotels.com claims that Captain Obvious is a registered trademark or Hotels.com and other mumbo jumbo

Didn't Captain Obvious start out as a meme? How can you trademark something that you didn't invent or come up with? Or even a saying, such as Captain Obvious? Isn't this the same as trademarking "Bad Luck Brian" for a car repair shop?

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues

Premium Member

While this is canada, you have no idea how bad the patent/copyright offices are in the US.

They'll allow almost ANYTHING, prior art or not. If you have the bucks to fight an infringement , beauty if not, oh well.
mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON

mr weather

Premium Member

I work in this field and know a little about what goes on. Patent practice in the US allows you to keep prosecuting your patent application essentially forever through what are called continuation applications. Plus, US examiners have a "docket" of patent files that they're assigned and they're only allocated a certain amount of time per docket: something like 5-10 hours total from the day they receive the application until it's disposed of (either allowed or rejected outright).

But even a final rejection is not final (see continuation applications above). If you have the resources you can wear down the examiner until they give in.

milnoc
join:2001-03-05
Ottawa

milnoc to btech805

Member

to btech805
said by btech805:

If you're a little guy then no you can't trademark generic terms...

"The Canadian Public."

»www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/app/op ··· OnPage=1

Yep! Mine!