Thursday, 20 December 2018

New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Why was Meetup.com allowed to trademark the word “meetup”? Ask HN: Why was Meetup.com allowed to trademark the word “meetup”?

Ask HN: Why was Meetup.com allowed to trademark the word “meetup”?
6 by Meetup | 2 comments on Hacker News.
There are numerous examples of companies such as Hotels.com that tried to trademark their domain name, and were unsuccessful. Why is Meetup.com allowed to have ownership rights of a very common English word that simply describes the service they provide? According to Meetup.com's trademark guidelines, 'The word "Meetup" and the other Meetup Marks, such as our Logos, designs, slogans and names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Meetup, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.' IANAL, but to me, this seems highly anti-competitive because it suggests they could sue anyone who uses the word "meetup" to describe a... meetup. Or sue a competitor that called themselves "FantasticMeetups.com" for example. See: 1. https://ift.tt/2jSrpmq 2. https://ift.tt/2Cqe1Bz

There are numerous examples of companies such as Hotels.com that tried to trademark their domain name, and were unsuccessful. Why is Meetup.com allowed to have ownership rights of a very common English word that simply describes the service they provide? According to Meetup.com's trademark guidelines, 'The word "Meetup" and the other Meetup Marks, such as our Logos, designs, slogans and names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Meetup, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.' IANAL, but to me, this seems highly anti-competitive because it suggests they could sue anyone who uses the word "meetup" to describe a... meetup. Or sue a competitor that called themselves "FantasticMeetups.com" for example. See: 1. https://ift.tt/2jSrpmq 2. https://ift.tt/2Cqe1Bz

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