An attempt to trademark "SEO"

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An attempt to trademark "SEO"

SEOMike

8:10 pm on Jun 23, 2008 (gmt 0)

I just came across this today.

This person came out of nowhere and tried to trademark the term “SEO” in the United States – and he's on his way to winning. Fortunately, there are members of the SEO community trying to stop him, or at least slow him down.

Full Article [webpronews.com]

[edited by: caveman at 9:18 pm (utc) on June 23, 2008]

g1smd

9:51 pm on Jun 23, 2008 (gmt 0)

There was a very long discussion of this at at SEOmoz a few weeks ago.

I think several people over there contested it. I'm not sure if there was a final outcome yet...

pageoneresults

9:59 pm on Jun 23, 2008 (gmt 0)

SEOMike

Whew, that was close. There would have been a lot username changes around here. :)

Trademark the initialism SEO? Man, things are really getting out of hand. I'm sure if that could have been done, there is one other company out there that would have done it years ago and we'd all be using a different initialism right now. ;)

incrediBILL

10:04 pm on Jun 23, 2008 (gmt 0)

Unless the USPTO has lost their mind this is a non-starter because you can't trademark a common term. Doesn't even matter who used it first or when in this case because you have to protect it all along, flag it with TM or SM, and make an effort to stop others from using it and that ship sailed long ago.

At this point it would be like trying to trademark "wood" or "paint".

However, specific names like "SEOMike" are surely still available for trademark ;)