From the U.S. Patent and Trademark website, discovered by searching reputation management in the U.S. trademark database.
Word Mark INTERNET REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: On-line advertising and marketing services. FIRST USE: 20090105. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20090105
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 77907989
Filing Date January 8, 2010
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Owner (APPLICANT) Obtainium, LLC DBA Internet Reputation Management LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY CALIFORNIA Suite E432 7770 Telegraph Road Ventura CALIFORNIA 93004
Attorney of Record Clinton J. Cusick
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
Now, if you go a bit deeper you will see that the “TARR status” indicates that the reviewing attorney appears to have issued an initial rejection. (Way to go reviewing attorney!”
Unfortunately, this practice – of attempting to corner emerging markets by attempting to trademark the words or phrases that the world had adopted to describe the new trend or new service in dialogue – is not all that uncommon. Witness, for example, the attempt to trademark the letters “SEO”.
Unfortunately, some poor soul spent thousands of dollars fighting that application to reign in a backdoor attempt to corner the SEO marketplace. (I, as did many others, contributed to a fund meant to reimburse the person who fronted the costs of the fight.)
Word to the wise: Pay a visit to the USPTO, from time to time, to see if someone is engaged in a bit of . . an effort . . to convince some possibly poorly informed attorney or bureaucrat that they should reign supreme in a world that you are already inhabiting, as a service provider, by the act and artifice of claiming rights to exclude you from calling yourself what everyone else in the industry would call you: SEO, internet reputation management specialist, etc.
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