"Fumble" Trademark

Doesn't prior use matter in us trademark law?

That you can file ownership of the Fumble trademark doesn't mean you automatically have a good case against everyone.
 
I love you all like brothers and sisters, but no reasonable business person is suing any other reasonable business person over the dollars involved in this (nearly non-) situation.

I'm not looking to chill any conversations about the technicalities, but the realities are that there's not enough money involved that a reputable attorney would get involved... on either side. Fighting on principle alone is a beautiful thing, but it's usually a losing business proposition.
 
genXslacker said:
I love you all like brothers and sisters, but no reasonable business person is suing any other reasonable business person over the dollars involved in this (nearly non-) situation.

I'm not looking to chill any conversations about the technicalities, but the realities are that there's not enough money involved that a reputable attorney would get involved... on either side. Fighting on principle alone is a beautiful thing, but it's usually a losing business proposition.
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Unless you wear orange bronzer as an adult man-baby.
 
genXslacker said:
I love you all like brothers and sisters, but no reasonable business person is suing any other reasonable business person over the dollars involved in this (nearly non-) situation.

I'm not looking to chill any conversations about the technicalities, but the realities are that there's not enough money involved that a reputable attorney would get involved... on either side. Fighting on principle alone is a beautiful thing, but it's usually a losing business proposition.
Click to expand...
Additionally, only the holder of the trademark can pursue action over it. You can make a listing for your Fumble pedal on reverb and it will only be taken down if JHS themselves complains. And if they do, you're not going to be hit with a cease and desist. They will make you change the title and that's it. As long as you don't build your pedal to look exactly like the JHS pedal, you have not infringed on their trademark.

Robert can call his board the Fumble as it is decidedly different from the pedal JHS makes called the Fumble. It may be a similar circuit but they are different products. The board sold here is not a pedal, does not look like the JHS pedal, and cannot be confused by the average buyer with the JHS Fumble. The question trademark law asks is "will a consumer confuse these two products?" and there is no way these two can be conflated by the average buyer, therefore the OP is free to do whatever you want with your pedal as long as you don't make it look like the JHS version and try to pass it off as a JHS pedal.
 
falco_femoralis said:
Additionally, only the holder of the trademark can pursue action over it. You can make a listing for your Fumble pedal on reverb and it will only be taken down if JHS themselves complains. And if they do, you're not going to be hit with a cease and desist. They will make you change the title and that's it. As long as you don't build your pedal to look exactly like the JHS pedal, you have not infringed on their trademark.

Robert can call his board the Fumble as it is decidedly different from the pedal JHS makes called the Fumble. It may be a similar circuit but they are different products. The board sold here is not a pedal, does not look like the JHS pedal, and cannot be confused by the average buyer with the JHS Fumble. The question trademark law asks is "will a consumer confuse these two products?" and there is no way these two can be conflated by the average buyer, therefore the OP is free to do whatever you want with your pedal as long as you don't make it look like the JHS version and try to pass it off as a JHS pedal.
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JHS understands this very well, which is what has led them to names like "NOTADĂśMBLĂ‹" and "NOTAKLĂ–N".
 
I agree this seems like a non-issue, and that JHS isn't going after a DIYer for writing Fumble on their pedal, but I do know some folks here have had problems selling things on Reverb that included trade names of cloned items. Maybe that only happens when manufacturers request it, but I think Reverb may be proactive about it in some cases. @OD is Glorious - I think your recent builds where the graphic included the original manufacturer name along with the pedal name would likely be a no-go for selling on reverb.
 
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