Cat & Cloud vs Caterpillar

@sammydog01 I really can’t see how Caterpillar could possibly have any trouble using their “CAT” trademark, unless they had spent a bunch of money on, and were just about to release some ad or PR campaign that, through some incomprehensible coincidence were going to use the phrase, “CAT & Cloud”.

I don’t get it.

@DennisG2014 The coffee company has applied for a trademark on apparel. Caterpillar thinks they should not get that trademark because they sell shirts that say Cat. It’s about a trademark, they are not suing the coffee company.

Meanwhile, heavily resourced Caterpillar wants to end this process (and negative publicity) expeditiously. “We are not suing Cat & Cloud, not targeting a small business and not focused on Cat & Cloud’s primary interest: coffee. We’ve simply asked the U.S. Trademark Office to remove Cat & Cloud’s trademark registration on footwear and apparel only, products for which Caterpillar has longstanding trademarks and a considerable business. We hope to resolve this issue quickly,” Caterpillar said in a statement to Yahoo Finance.

As far as I can tell they’re not even suing to stop the coffee guys from selling those shirts, just removing the trademark protection.

@DennisG2014 By the way that giant evil corporation still manufactures equipment in the US and wins best employer awards.

@DennisG2014 @sammydog01
While most of Caterpillar’s machines are manufactured in the Midwest, some of the company’s other leading manufacturing plants are located in Russia, China, and Brazil.

But yeah

It’s still petty imho.

Many years ago, a famous musician was really moved by Steven Spielberg’s “ET” movie and wrote a song about it. It topped the charts at number 5. MCA, which was in charge of merchandising for the movie, threatened a lawsuit, which is a bit specious since there is no mention of the film or any of the characters in the lyric. Still, Diamond made a deal with MCA, paying them $25,000 in order to avoid litigation.

Big business likes to make money
and they do so any publicity is good for name recognition, although I’m not sure Harvey Weinstein would agree.

@Cerridwyn @DennisG2014 Petty, yeah probably. But maybe if we showed more respect to companies like Caterpillar they would be less likely to move their operations overseas. We need them more than another hipster coffee shop. And the coverage of this tiff isn’t exactly unbiased.

@sammydog01 How about a Subway sub right about now?

@Barney Fuck Subway, they let people cut in line.

@DennisG2014 @sammydog01
Define respect?

I respect those who respect others. I don’t respect people who treat small businesses like dirt, whether coffee shop, olive oil maker, local jeweler, or the neighborhood garden shop.

It’s not respectful to go after someone who is doing you no harm. Of course your lawyers make money, so …

An it harm none, do as thou wilt.

@Cerridwyn
Cat and Cloud hat

Caterpillar logo

Looks like a similar design. It’s the job of the trademark commission to make a decision- that’s why we have one. The coffee people took it to the court of public opinion. I hate that.

Caterpillar also pointed out that their merchandise was sold by a lot of small businesses and they need protection too. You can’t let small businesses infringe because you lose the trademark and can’t defend it against big businesses.

@sammydog01
how in the name of hades does that look similar, or is that sarcasm? ( I am not so good at that without the non verbal )

And the coffee shop didn’t, the coffee industry did. Their customers did. The specialty coffee industry is very unique in some ways in how they stand together.

As an example when my local shop had its 10th birthday, it celebrated with a block party. And it invited every other specificity coffee purveyor within about 25 miles and most of them were there, selling their goods to the populace.

@Cerridwyn The letters are the same shape. That’s how trademarks work- you defend them. If you don’t defend them you lose them. You can’t say, oh the poor special coffee shop, we’ll let them slide on something that may be infringing a logo very valuable to us. It’s a legal thing that people are taking personally. Remember the coffee shop applied for a trademark to use on t-shirts and hats- that’s the issue here. There is a system and they think they’re above it. Maybe they’ll win, I’m not a lawyer. But you need to let the system do its job.

@sammydog01 re: “giant evil corporation” - I’m making no judgement about Caterpillar.
I just fail to see how Cat & Cloud is in anyway threatening CAT’s trademark.

The letters are are similar because it’s the same alphabet. It’s a completely different font, and a completely different ‘message’.

As far as I can see, none of the coffee company’s apparel says just, “CAT”; if that were the case, I’d understand. All of their stuff says, “CAT & CLOUD”, aside from it having that one word in common, there is absolutely no similarity.

Again, I’m making no judgement on Caterpillar or their motives, I just don’t see the threat to their trademark.

I’m not going to Google other companies with ‘cat’ in their name, I’ll just make one up for a hypothetical…
Let’s say a company named, “Cat in the Hat bakery” (ignore the infringement w/ Dr. Seuss, just coming up w/ a quick hypothetical) applied for a trademark to put their name on clothing, would CAT have an infringement case?
Does anyone who wants to trademark a phrase with the word ‘cat’ in it have to clear it with CAT first?

I don’t think Caterpillar can lay claim to any use of the word ‘cat’. I get if it’s just the word ‘CAT’, that could be confusing. But a phrase containing that word? With no reasonable similarity to CAT and their logo?

I don’t get it.

I know companies have to aggressively defend their trademarks, I just don’t see how Caterpillar has any kind of claim here.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@DennisG2014 That’s why lawyers do this stuff- they understand trademark law and you and I don’t. Unless you’re a trademark lawyer and then I apologize.

@DennisG2014 @sammydog01 More to the point, lawyers make up the (often) silly rules in the first place, and if they were simple to understand and navigate it would cut into their action.

@Cerridwyn @sammydog01 The letters are the same shape because if the “C” was in the shape of a square, snake, or “L” it would no longer be a “C”

@sammydog01 Cat and Cloud was granted their trademark for use on clothing (which is what Caterpillar is trying to revoke) on June 14, 2016 (see Trademark Reg. No. 4,976,835). The mark was published for opposition on March 29, 2016. Caterpillar had 2 months to oppose the mark, but did not file an opposition. Was Caterpillar to cheap not to subscribe to Thompson’s trademark watch service?

Thompson’s watch services informs you of trademarks based on your mark, that might infringe on your mark so you may oppose them during the opposition period.

Why did it take 3 years for Caterpillar to care?
Plus I feel that the USPTO made an error on granting Caterpillar the exclusive right to the trademark “CAT”. Cat is a generic term. When the term “CAT” is used majority of people think of cats…as in the animals, domestic cats, lions, etc not Caterpillar the heavy equipment manufacture.

I bet that Caterpillar doesn’t win this one.

@HadEnough
Do you have a link to Thompson’s trademark watch service with costs listed?
I just trademarked a name for a small business venture I am starting and would like to keep a watch on any infringements in the future.
Thanks.

@asplus
This is what I found (see below). I haven’t done any trademark prosecution in about 8 yrs, only have being doing patent prosecution (I am a IP paralegal). I can’t say how much they charge. https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/products-services/legal.html.

Also CPA global has a trademark watch service:
https://www.cpaglobal.com/trademark-watch

I would check both of them out.
Best of luck!!

@katylava