Een trademark zoekopdracht (http://www.uspto.gov/) resulteert in de volgende gegevens (Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)):

Het trademark is aangevraagd in 2008 en toegekend in 2009 (19 mei). Een maandje later stuurt de eigenaar me een mail om een link te verzoeken.

Mijn DatePad bestaat sinds 2001 (zie readme.txt in de allereerste distributie versie). Onze ‘klanten’ zijn verschillend, en de kans op verwarring tussen de twee sites is nagenoeg nihil. Mijn site biedt gratis software aan om een agenda bij te houden. De andere site is bedoeld voor relatiebemiddeling. Derhalve maak ik me niet meer druk. Helemaal niet na het gratis advies via de avvo site.

Verder komt er bij deze hele kwestie natuurlijk ook nog het internationale aspect kijken. Het feit dat zij in de USA zijn gevestigd en ik hier in het verre europa, zal de boel niet vereenvoudigen.

Mijn reply aan Shawn (de ‘President and CEO’ van de andere Datepad):

After evaluating your email and reviewing the search results in Google I have to conclude that there is almost no posibility that your clients or mine will get confused by the search results as it is clearly indicated your datepad is a site about dating, and mine is software for keeping a calendar.

I think adding a link to refer to your dating site will not be necesary, because it is not something the visitors to my website will be interested in.

Hopende dat hiermee de kous af is.

Update:
Ook volgens TheLaw.com hem ik niet veel te duchten, alhoewel dit toch een iets minder profesioneel antwoord is:

First of all, I have no idea if this newly registered site really does own any rights. Second, when you file a trademark, you must make representations of not knowing that there is prior usage. Considering you have been using that name for your software for 8 years and all this person did was use Google to find you, I’d have to say their trademark search was lousy. It would seem to me that if all he wants is a link to their site, they probably don’t have the rights that they say they do. If you challenge their rights and state the above to them… might they be afraid that you can challenge their trademark? I can’t tell you what to do but my feeling is that they aren’t looking for a lawsuit any more than you and they probably know they likely do not have a case. These are just my thoughts.

Klik op lees meer om het advies te bekijken, of bekijk de gehele vraagstelling op de avvo site.

Pamela Koslyn – Contributor

There seems to be little chance of confusion between your software and their dating service. From your facts it’s unknown how long you’ve been using Datepad for free notepad software and how long they’ve been using it for a dating service, but even assuming they’ve been around longer since they have a registered mark and their term shows up higher than yours on browser searches, other than the marks being identical, it seems that the Sleekcraft factors favor you. See AMF, Inc. v. Sleekcraft Boats, 599 F.2d 341 (9th Cir. 1979)

The Sleekcraft factors analyzed for likelihood of confusion are:

1. strength of the mark;
2. proximity of the goods;
3. similarity of the marks;
4. evidence of actual confusion;
5. marketing channels used;
6. type of goods and the degree of care likely to be exercised by the purchaser;
7. defendant’s intent in selecting the mark; and
8. likelihood of expansion of the product lines.

Their mark may be somewhat stronger (due to longer use, registration, higher search engine results), but your respective uses have no proximity, and it seems very unlikely that either of you would expand to the others’ use or would confuse each other’s consumers. Your consumers are probably sophisticated computer users who have to seek out your freeware on software sites with some effort, theirs are looking for dates. Yours pay nothing for your free goods, and presumably theirs pay something for their services. It seems unlikely you had any intent of capitalizing on their mark in choosing your goods’ name.

It would appear that you could co-exist in the market without hurting each other, as you probably have so far, and that adding something to your site, either a disclaimer of relationship to them or a hypelink to their site to make sure any wayward consumers find them, is unnecessary. Dating Datepad hasn’t threatened a lawsuit or demanded you cease and desist your use, and their letter is pretty friendly. I suggest either that you ignore it, or send them a polite response declining their suggestion and advising them that you do not think a link is necessary because no consumers are likely to be confused between your respective uses. If they sue you, you would still have the disclaimer and link options.

Disclaimer: Please note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on, since each state has different laws, each situation is fact specific, and it is impossible to evaluate a legal problem without a comprehensive consultation and review of all the facts and documents at issue. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship.
AMF, Inc. v. Sleekcraft Boats, 599 F.2d 341 (9th Cir. 1979)

Nu zijn mijn ‘problemen’ van een andere aard. Mijn gratis programma DatePad is de reden van de problemen. Blijkbaar is Datepad ook de naam van een online dating website; een site voor relatiebemiddeling en de eigenaar heeft me een voorstel gestuurd. Als ik een link plaats naar zijn relatiebemiddeling site is er (voorlopig) niets aan de hand. Zo niet, dan moeten we eens goed praten over ‘trademark infringement‘.

Hi Adrianus,

I am the owner of Datepad Inc. which holds the international trademark rights to “Datepad”. We have learned that you also distribute a piece of software using the same trademarked name, http://leiden365.nl/datepad which in most Google search results shows up below our site links.

The last thing I am looking to do is become involved in a legal dispute over this trademark infringement, what I would like at this time in order to avoid legal proceedings is to ask that you add a link to our site at the top of the http://leiden365.nl/datepad page. Simply stating “for Datepad Internet Dating” please click here.

Thank you in advance for quickly resolving this legal matter.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Best Regards,
Shawn
President and CEO Datepad.com

Tsja, ik heb nu advies gevraagd op een paar ‘gratis-juridisch-advies’ sites en afhankelijk daarvan zie ik wel wat ik ga doen. In ieder geval maak ik me nu een stuk minder druk.

Als er nog advocaten zijn die mijn blog lezen, dan verneem ik graag een vrijblijvend adviesje.