Chisholm Malcolm J Jr

Description

Home Page Client Comments Common client questions Examples of issued patents Atty. Chisholm Bio BUSINESS RISKS OF USING THE INTERNET, OR, DON ’T LET THE CYBER COPS ARREST YOUR BUSINESS GROWTH A small but rapidly growing business called "BOXERS" was carving out a niche in sales of humorous boxer trunks out of a retail kiosk in Boston ’s famous Quincy Market. Several enterprising young women had leased the winning location and sub-licensed manufacture of fanciful men ’s underwear boxer trunks that were selling to honeymooning tourists and gift-giving folks. Manufacture of the underwear could barely keep up with demand during the first tourist season from mid-spring to mid-fall, but sales fell off as winter approached. BOXERS decided to sell their best-selling trunks through their internet web-site, and featured their fastest-moving product called Boxer-1 right on their home page. Boxer-1 included across the back of the underwear trunks a split hamburger bun, and between the split bun was the phrase "HOME OF THE WHOPPER". Within a month BOXERS received an extremely scary letter from the BURGER KING Corporation insisting that BOXERS immediately cease and desist from all sales of the Boxer-1 trunks; provide identification of all recipients of sales of those trunks; provide full accounting records of all sales activities of BOXERS of any nature; and pay BURGER KING an amount of damages well in excess of $100,000.00 for damaging their famous trademarks "HOME OF THE WHOPPER", and their "Split-Bun" logo. Cyber Cops had BOXERS in their arresting cross-hairs. A young couple had over five years experience as chefs in the most exquisite resort in Berkshire County, and decided to open an up-scale restaurant in Great Barrington, MA. Wanting to use a trademark for their new business that immediately suggested a natural grains, beans and vegetarian approach to healthy cuisine, the couple called their new restaurant "GARBONZOS", referring to the famous little "chic-peas" well-known to all. GARBONZOS quickly soared to the top of the Great Barrington popularity charts, and the couple decided to put together a web-site to let the world know where good cuisine could be found. Within a month, a five-restaurant franchise in Louisiana called "FAT GARBONZOS" employed a New York City trademark specialist law firm to deliver to a "cease-and-desist" scary letter to GARBONZOS insisting upon immediate cessation of use of the word "GARBONZO"; and substantial money damages for infringement of their federally registered trademark "FAT GARBONZO'S". Cyber cops had struck again! These imaginary fact patterns are quite similar to many problems some of my clients have faced through ignorance of trademark laws. In the days before widespread usage of the internet, such problems were rare, and only arose upon facts quite different than those recited above. Let's call those easier, simpler times "pre-e-world". In the pre-e-world, opening an enterprise of strictly regional scope rarely if ever "bumped into" ownership rights of faraway businesses.

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